After 6 years of marriage to prince Rainier of Monaco (Ray for friends), Grace (Gracie for friends) starts to feel frisky and even more so when Hitch (Hitchcock for you and me) offers her the role of Marnie.However, Ray is less than thrilled at the idea of Gracie going back to work and to Hollywood. Her part of the deal was to be Monaco's first housewife and stay home with the kids. Ray is grumpy by nature and also because the annoying De Gaulle wants him to pay taxes, otherwise Ray's tiny principality will be annexed by France.Killing two birds with a stone, not only Gracie decides to start learning French (after 6 years in the country she could hardly say a word) but also she averts the annexation, thanks to a very long (albeit quite boring and predictable) speech delivered at the Red Cross ball. Can you image what a mighty tragedy could have been if Monaco was annexed to France? A crisis likely to cause WW III. But luckily Gracie diverted all that, thanks to her style and beauty. Even if I was expecting very little, I would have appreciated a bit about Gracie introducing her Hollywood friends to the ways of Monaco's gambling and partying, as a source of revenue for the principality. But that would have been way too controversial. However, it was grotesque to see Monaco, a shard of land famous as a tax haven and gambling resort treated with so much deference, as its existence and that of the ruling house of Grimaldi should be preserved for ever...Obviously I watched this on TV and I would recommend the experience if once in a while you enjoy watching a thoroughly bad movie.

I imagine that many on this critic's board are old enough to remember the real Grace Kelly and perhaps even old enough to have "been there" at her wedding etc. That would explain all of the pompous reviews.Kelly was not a complicated person. Anyone reading any biographies of her contemporaries (Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, Garland etc.) will know that she was not exactly Little Miss Goody Two-Shoes in Hollywood. Quite the hot tamale actually, if you catch my drift. According to Tony Curtis anyway, the "goody-goody ones" are the nymphomaniacs! But I digress.The movie is just fine. Kidman is very talented, as is the rest of the cast, except for Parker Posey, who is somewhat cartoonish in her character. Perhaps if I had not seen her in so many satirical films with Chris Guest and Company....The film highlights a time in history when the Jet Set was in full swing. Jackie, Princess Margaret, and of course Grace KNEW Jack Kennedy, much to Jackie's chagrin. Plus, we see Ari and Maria and realize what a small incestuous circle it all is.The plot to overthrow Ranier is presented in a sloppy fashion and is difficult to follow if not paying close attention; it may require a bit of re-wind to figure out who is friend and who is foe.The film is very pleasing to the eye as well. It is Miss Kidman's film all the way and she does a superb job. No need to nitpick or split hairs over the details in this one. It is re-watchable.

it is too easy to criticize it. because it is only glamorous homage to a legend of Hollywood. nothing more. the costumes, the lights, Nicole Kidman herself as inspired choice for remind Grace Kelly, Tim Roth as an ambiguous leader looking the better manner for solve the crisis and drive his marriage, the naive crumbs of conspiracy and the characters as sketches are proofs for accept the film only as nice exercise for remind an old fairy tale in its dramatic aspect. it is not a great film. but it is useful trip in atmosphere of a small European state who remains almost a mystery under the sparkles of a lot of seductive activities.

Usually, when I watch a film, when it is clearly not my cup of tea, I switch off. The only reason this film gets a three out of ten rating is because, it truly is, mesmerizingly awful. You won't be able to look away, because: 1. There are some seriously good actors here, Tim Roth and Derek Jacobi, Geraldine Summerville, Robert Lyndsay and Nicole Kidman. So watching them all doing their best as it all goes from bad to worse is like watching a car crash. It must have looked so much more compelling in the script yes? 2. The half hearted attempt to make the film as a homage to films that Grace Kelly starred in. (See the nod and the wink when Nicole's Grace drives down the hill - 'To Catch a Thief') There is also the film stock used which is also reminiscent at particular moments of 1950s films. Also, the over wrought music score.3. By the final penultimate scene when the character 'Grace' (sorry, but it just seems so rude to refer to this creation as Grace Kelly) makes a frankly mawkish and very average speech......you will be dumbstruck.......clearly, we, as the audience, are being poked and nudged to 'feel' great emotion over this moment, as if 'Grace' is making a speech on a par with Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech! Oh dear oh dear.4. The entire narrative premise is dodgy - no matter how the script tries to hide it, this is basically a tale of a very wealthy principality, a tax haven no less, 'fighting the evil Republic' so they can maintain that position.It is one of those films where you know you are supposed to be cheer leading for the main character, but it all comes across - to me anyway - as extremely forced. Having watched a few documentaries over the years about Grace Kelly, she sounds like a complex, down to earth woman, not the wispy character we see here.Make your own mind up ladies and gentlemen, do give it a go, because as I say, it is mesmerizing, just not in the way the film makers hoped.