BEHIND THE SCENES OF A FAIRY TALE : "GRACE OF MONACO"

I decided to see this one (again on a plane) because I was rather bemused by the overall “mediocre” reviews of it. It was set as an extravaganza after all, opening the Cannes Film Festival no less, a clearly opulent, highly visual film about a modern fairy tale; the story of Grace Kelly, who left the glamour of Tinsel town to be the Princess of Monaco.

However, the fairy tale, we quickly learn, is not all it seems. Grace misses Hollywood and her old world,  Rainier ( Tim Roth) is distant and increasingly stressed about Monaco’s increasingly tense relationship with De Gaule era France and no matter how hard Grace tries, she can’t seem to get it right, every single thing she says and does seems to be wrong. When Hitchcock offers her the leading part in his latest film, Marnie, Grace reaches crisis point. She has the perfect opportunity to return to the stage – but with a crisis brewing in Monaco and her new family to consider… Which way will Grace turn?

I mean we have the advantage of hindsight here, we all know she stayed with Rainier, never acted again and was her Serene Highness the Princess of Monaco for the rest of her life. And herein lies the problem with this film. There is no real crisis, because most, if not all of us know what Grace decided to do. The interest of the film lies – or would lie – in portraying her psychological process in getting there. It offers an interesting opportunity to look into the mind of a woman forced to choose between her career and her family. What we end up with, between Grace’s wise father figure Father Tucker, the elocution lessons and the French lessons (complete with the now rather stale parody of Americans being unable to pronounce foreign languages) something akin to the Princess Diaries, or, you know, all those tweenage films about regular girls learning to be princesses. And on the other hand, I mean come on. The dilemma is between being a famous actress or an actual princess. It’s not exactly an easy dilemma to sympathize with.

The second point, which I actually read in another review is that the same is valid for the Monaco deal. It is, of course, absolutely tragic for any country to lose its sovereignty but at the end of the day, in real terms, they would simply become French citizens and lose some tax privileges. It’s bad. But it’s not exactly being put to the sword either. And just as it was in the case of Grace’s story, we actually know what happened. Monaco still exists. The end. In fact the whole “danger” is largely economic, the long discussions (and the explanations thereof, as given to Grace who plays the role of the Everyman) are basically a lot of men in tuxedos round a board room table. Again, very hard to sympathize with.

In both crises typical Hollywood tricks are used to heighten emotion, extreme close ups of faces (and eyes and mouths quite a few times), tense music, suitable sequences of both Nicole Kidman and Tim Roth looking tortured….   But in the end, the moment you take a step back, there is no real “crisis” there, not for us. I would have found a much more deeply psychological behind the scenes angle a lot more interesting.

It’s a shame really, because there  is a really good opportunity there, something akin to what we discussed concerning CallasForever – an actress, playing an actress, playing a part. Or rather learning to play a part. I mean we do get hints at that, I rather liked the vignettes of Grace Kelly rehearsing Marnie in front of her bedroom mirror. I do wonder how Kidman approached that; did she do it the way she herself would play Marnie or try and figure out how Grace Kelly would do it? Both maybe? But I mean even that is marred slightly, there comes a moment when Father Tucker holds Grace’s hands earnestly and says – as deep down we knew he would : “Grace, learning to be the Princes is the role of a lifetime”.

I mean yeah, the film is beautiful, opulent… But for all that, it falls short on the way the story is told. I know the whole idea is the “backstory” of a typical fairy tale being exposed, but if the fairy tale is typical, this doesn’t mean the way we tell it has to be as well… So I’m afraid I have to say yes, I totally see why so many people just turned around and said it was just… “Meh”… I feel sadly obliged to join their ranks…