Grace of Monaco

After a disastrous 2014 premiere at Cannes, this “inspired by real events” film sat on the shelf for more than a year before being released. The trivial, simplistic story focuses on a 1962 crisis when France's President Charles de Gaulle—mired in the costly Algerian War—blockaded Monaco, angered by its status as a tax haven for wealthy French citizens. At the same time, director Alfred Hitchcock visited the palace to try to tempt Grace Kelly into starring in his psychological thriller Marnie. When Hitchcock (Roger Ashton-Griffiths) arrives, Princess Grace (Nicole Kidman) is weary of playing wife/mother in the luxurious 235-room Grimaldi palace overlooking the Mediterranean, noting: “The idea of my life as a fairy tale is itself a fairy tale.” Encouraged by her confidante, Father Francis Tucker (Frank Langella)—the Catholic priest who arranged her 1956 marriage to Prince Rainier III (Tim Roth)—she works with a protocol expert (Derek Jacobi) to subversively dazzle de Gaulle (André Penvern) with diplomacy at the annual Red Cross charity ball. Barely glimpsed in the background are powerful Greek financier Aristotle Onassis (Robert Lindsay) and his mistress, opera singer Maria Callas (Paz Vega). While Kidman resembles Kelly, she displays no depth of feeling, a problem directly attributable to the banal banter concocted by screenwriter Arash Amel and director Olivier Dahan, who even manage to squeeze in a conspiratorial subplot involving Rainier's duplicitous sister, Princess Antoinette (Geraldine Somerville), and a lady-in-waiting (Parker Posey). A dull and dreary historical mishmash, this is not recommended. (S. Granger)