Grace Of Monaco

It's no secret this film directed by La Vie En Rose's Olivier Dahan had an awful drubbing at the Cannes Film Festival. If you feel the need to see it anyway and have low expectations, you might find it's not all that bad. Sure, it's melodramatic and somehow ends up crediting Princess Grace of Monaco with averting war with France by giving one emotional speech about love (!), but it's entertaining in its own way.

Nicole Kidman is really the wrong physical type to take on the ethereally beautiful Grace Kelly, who conquered Hollywood, won an Oscar and then gave it all up to marry Monaco's Prince Rainier III (Tim Roth), but the often self-conscious Kidman seems pretty natural and gives it her all despite some of the more outlandish aspects of the film.

This is a 'fictional account inspired by real events' so you can't take what you see as being substantially true – Alfred Hitchcock almost luring Grace back to acting with a lead role in Marnie, Charles de Gaulle almost invading Monaco because of a dispute about tax, marital disharmony between Grace and Rainier. If you take it with a grain of 'fictional' salt, you can still feel your admission price was worth it, if not for the gorgeous frocks and scenery.