Monte Carlo (20th Century Fox)
A Throwback To the Sixties
Monte Carlo is a throwback to the sixties when fantasy films were all the rage. This was the era of Elvis movies at their escapist best, where Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee fell in love in the purest sense of the word, and where teenage girls could become princesses for a few days. Monte Carlo gathers all of these sixties traditions into one enjoyable package and tells reality not to intrude.
Grace (Selena Gomez) is an eighteen year old living in Texas and working as a waitress as she waits to graduate high school. Her best friend is her co-waitress Emma (Katie Cassidy) who has some dreams of her own. She wants to go to Paris with Grace and she also wants to marry and settle down with Owen (Corey Monteith). Emma is a couple of years older than Grace so she is going on the Paris trip to help watch over her.
After high school graduation Graces mother (Andie MacDowell) and stepfather (Brett Cullen) announce that they are also sending Graces stepsister Meg (Leighton Meester) along. This does not thrill Grace as she and Meg are not close, but she accepts the fact she is coming and determines to make the best of it.
In Paris the trio sees the sights. They also discover Grace is the spitting image of Cordelia Winthrop Scott, a British heiress who is sneaking off to vacation in Majorca. Through a turn of events Grace ends up being mistaken for Cordelia and she and her friends are whisked off to Monte Carlo and ensconced in a four star hotel suite.
During this adventure Meg meets a roving Australian named Riley (Luke Bracey) and Grace meets a suave Frenchman named Theo (Pierre Boulanger). He of course knows nothing of Grace but only of Cordelia. Emma meanwhile is missing Owen.
The three young women all do well by their roles with Cassidy coming off as the most engaging. She has a spunkiness that is irresistible. Gomez is convincing both as Grace and as Cordelia. Meester is a natural beauty who evolves as Meg.
The movie is rated PG for mild profanity.
Nothing about the movie is remotely believable from the setup to the outcome, but it is all played with such innocence and charm that the lack of reality is not a problem. It is a purely escapist film aimed at tween age girls and with them it should be a great success.
I scored Monte Carlo a vacationed 6 out of 10.
