First of all, this is not a biography, it's about an event that apparently took place in Monaco in the early 1960's. The French President deciding Monaco should pay taxes to France? After all the negative reviews, I was expecting the worst, but was surprised I quite enjoyed it. Nicole Kidman was most effective as Grace Kelly, and I can't think of anyone else today who could have handled that difficult role so well. Tim Roth was not as good looking as the real Prince Rainier, and Nicole's 5'11" towered over him. I thought the guy who played Hitchcock was better than the recent screen versions! Perhaps the film should have been titled 'Monaco in Crisis' or some such, so as not to mislead people into thinking this would be a bio of Grace Kelly?

The bad thing about messing up history and making a movie about a real person that is not based on facts but fiction is that we tend to remember the movie. So, now thousands of people will believe that Kelly saved Monaco (de Gaulle never went to any ball, the situation was negotiated peacefully with France at the end). They will believe that the marriage with the prince did not include numerous extramarital affairs on both sides and they will believe that Grace was as tall and elegant as Nicole Kidman, the perfect princess. Too bad, because reality was good enough. The movie is beautiful, superbly esthetic, but that is all.

It's 1961. Former Hollywood star Grace Kelly (Nicole Kidman) is married to Rainier III, Prince of Monaco (Tim Roth) with two kids. Hitchcock tries to lure her back to Hollywood for his movie Marnie. France is fighting a colonial war in Algeria and is demanding taxation from Monaco. Charles De Gaulle is threatening invasion. Grace Kelly is suffocating under the pressure and decides to do the movie.

I came into this movie knowing that it's been critically panned but not necessarily why. At first, I thought the movie isn't that bad. There is definitely artistic license being taken with the historical events but that's par for the course. Then after twenty to thirty minutes, it became clear that something is glaringly wrong with this movie. The overwrought melodrama with the historical events left a bitter taste. Finally, I read that very little of it is historically accurate which makes a lot of sense. None of it rang true when I saw it. It's like a bad soap opera.

Some of the visuals are beautifully shot but sometimes it goes overboard like it's trying way too hard. There are many ridiculous things like her frustration day after day getting acting lessons. The screenwriter should remember that she was actually a professional actress. It's fine that she's told to act a certain way but Grace Kelly could easily achieve it all by herself without any trouble or any coaching. It becomes a group of fictional incorrect characters in a surreal play that intersects sometimes with historical events.