This Grace of Monaco movie review was just posted on Facebook by a close friend of Princess Grace …and someone who was actually there at the time the events depicted in the movie took place:
Grace of Monaco Movie : The good, the bad, and the ugly
Before making any further comments, I decided to travel to Europe to see this film for myself. I can honestly say that it is not as bad as the critics have made it out to be (many of them seem to have had preconceived ideas, and perhaps wrote their scathing reviews before even seeing the movie), but it is definitely not good.
Although Hollywood films are known for being woefully inaccurate, that is no excuse for a writer to write a script about actual people, places and events without doing any real research! It is not right to simply put a disclaimer that the events depicted in the film have been fictionalized, then open the movie with newsreel footage, as this misleads the audience into believing that what follows is factual. This movie should never have been made – it is so far off the mark that it should have been called “Princess Diaries 3” and starred Anne Hathaway, rather than distort the images and the memory of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier.
Those who are looking for Princess Grace or Grace Kelly will not find her in this movie – there are only brief and occasional glimpses of her in Nicole Kidman’s performance, partly because the script itself does not capture any of her essence, and partly because the director did not want an imitation of Grace – therefore what you see is Nicole Kidman playing a very unhappy Princess, but it is definitely not Her Serene Highness, Princess Grace. The movie’s portrayal of Prince Rainier is completely and utterly wrong. As a matter of fact, every character is portrayed badly and incorrectly, except perhaps Hitchcock. There are really drastic errors in virtually every scene. The problem with this film is that it is not fictionalized enough to be truly entertaining, but it is not accurate enough to be a biopic, so it falls short in every way. Please don’t believe anything you see in this movie!
Most of the main characters in the film were no longer in Monaco at the time of the events depicted in the plot, which culminated in October 1962. Madge, who was Grace’s Australian Lady-in-Waiting (played by Parker Posey as an American), was dismissed in February 1962; Grace’s secretary Phyllis (an American) left her service in March to marry the nephew of Somerset Maugham; and Father Tucker left Prince Rainier’s service as his spiritual adviser in June to return to America. Many of the character’s ages have been completely distorted: Rupert Allan was 49 in 1962, but is played by a 36-year-old; Princess Grace was 32 during the crisis, played by a 46-year-old Nicole Kidman. Most outrageous of all is Jeanne Balibar (age 46), who said in an interview: “I was very happy because my character was the only one that actually didn’t exist” – but there really was a very elderly Countess Baciocchi who lived at the Palace at that time as the Dame du Palais.
There are really only two elements to this film that are accurate:
1) Alfred Hitchcock bought the rights for “Marnie” in order for Grace to play the lead. However, the movie portrays Prince Rainier as being against Grace making the film when he was actually the one who encouraged it. When Grace officially announced to the world in March 1962 that she would be making the film, the people of Monaco vehemently objected, saying that a movie star might become a Princess, but it was not becoming for a Princess to be a movie star.
2) There was indeed a crisis with France in 1962, but although the world wants to reduce this to an issue over “taxing billionaires”, De Gaulle actually threatened to invade and annex Monaco and depose Prince Rainier. Perhaps some Brits may not be monarchists, but I imagine that most of the English people would support their queen to fight the likes of De Gaulle if England were being threatened in such a way. I also doubt that the English would welcome another country like France demanding that each British citizen must pay taxes to the French. Although taxes were at issue during the crisis, there was a lot more intrigue going on at the time, including rampant anti-Americanism, which was also at the heart of the crisis.
The list of inaccuracies in this film would be very long, so I will break it up into different postings. What is most disturbing is that what most people think they know about Princess Grace seems to come from tabloid sources or tabloid writers thinly disguised as biographers. This writer of this movie seems to have sourced his questionable “research” on tabloid gossip and based the film on these myths, which only serves to perpetuate them. This is why I am offering these personal memoirs of “My Days with Princess Grace of Monaco: Our 25-Year Friendship, Beyond Grace Kelly” – to set the record straight from someone who knew her and was actually there!
Source: http://www.facebook.com/dayswithgrace
