Grace Kelly has become almost as famous for her offscreen life for her onscreen talent, and it’s bewildering that it’s taken Hollywood this long to give her a biopic, given how nicely her life lends itself to one. Unfortunately, the movie, Grace of Monaco, is opening Cannes Film Festival this weekend and it’s getting some of the worst reviews of any “high-minded” film in recent memory. Starring Nicole Kidman and directed by the generally reliable Olivier Dahan (La Vie en Rose), the film has suffered plenty of pre-release drama: Kelly’s family withdrew their support of the movie and has very vocally condemned it, and Dahan is having a brutal disagreement with distributor Harvey Weinstein about the final cut.
And now, it’s getting a critical lashing as well. It currently has just a 5% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Hollywood Reporter saying “It is almost perversely impressive how Dahan misses almost every target and squanders almost every opportunity” and The Guardian saying it’s “like a 104-minute Chanel ad, only without the subtlety and depth” …
