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Film Review: Grace of Monaco
/ May 29, 2014
Rating: PG
Release Date: June 5th, 2015
Grace of Monaco is a new biopic about the life of legenadary Oscar wining actress Grace Kelly who gave up her Hollywood career to marry Prince Ranier of Monaco in 1956. Royal life wasn’t so welcoming of her ‘loud American ways’ however, and she had to decide how much sacrifice the fairytale was worth.
Much like The Iron Lady or The Kings Speech, I get the feeling Grace of Monaco was meant to be an opportunity to tell the tale of someone who brought about cultural revolution despite personal struggle and political tension.
Grace was a woman navigating the complexities of inter-cultural marriage, 24-hour political life, and Royal expectations in an era where the East/West divide was rarely crossed, and women didn’t have much right to speak up. She sat in a place between fully embracing who she was, and trying to assimilate into a new society.
There’s a lot here to think about.
How ‘authentic’ was she allowed to be? Most of the marital issues its suggested she faced (the film begins with a disclaimer), come back to honesty, and decisions she made to hide or reveal the passions that drive her. Prince Ranier falls in love with an imbalanced “idea of [her]”, and they’re forever trying to find a middle ground.
It’s a take-home message for the audience, and perhaps the simplest one: If you want satisfaction in relationships, be authentic. Don’t create a false sense of self in pursuit of a fairytale, and then wonder why expectations are upon you you have no desire to deliver.
Grace of Monaco had good content and moral ground to explore, and could have been so much more. Kelly must have had a weighty quality to her life for filmmakers to decide a modern audience needed to see it, but the delivery left her dull and lacking.
I’m sorry Grace of Monaco, I wanted to love you, but it’s 4.5/10 from me. Don’t pay $19, wait till DVD.
