Monte Carlo. Rated PG (mild coarse language). 109 mins. Directed by Thomas Bezucha. Screenplay by Thomas Bezucha, April Blair and Maria Maggenti. Story by Kelly Bowe based on the novel Headhunters by Jules Bass.
This confident little charmer is absolutely guaranteed to set hearts fluttering, eyes watering and quite possibly a stampede to the nearest Flight Centre. Handsomely produced by Nicole Kidman (among others), Monte Carlo could, for reasons which will become obvious, easily be interpreted as Ms Kidman’s love letter to Australia – such is the undeniable synchronicity between Ms Kidman’s own success on the world stage and Monte Carlo’s trio of young women, whose ambition is to live the most fulfilling life they can.
Selena Gomez (Hannah Montana) is marvellously unaffected as Grace – a young girl who has been studying and working tirelessly to save up for a well-earned trip to Paris with her girlfriend Emma (70s pop star David Cassidy’s daughter Katie). When Grace’s parents insist that she and Emma are accompanied on the trip by her step-sister Meg (Leighton Meester), our trio of cool young adventurers jet off on the holiday of a lifetime. But when Grace is inadvertently mistaken for the snobby heiress Cordelia Winthrop Scott (also played by Ms Gomez), the girls discover that their individuality (and their hearts) has truly been set free.
Apart from a couple of deadly slumps into way too serious terrain, Mr Bezucha ensures that Monte Carlo successfully flits and flirts along its well-worn ‘mistaken identity-inspired complications’ route – thanks largely to the boots-and-all performances of a charismatic and engaging young cast, each of whom play it up for all it's worth in sensationally glamorous locales.
Jonathan Brown’s bright, beautiful and uncluttered cinematography takes us up close and personal to Paris and Monte Carlo as our girls take on the jewels of Europe with flair and a great sense of romantic abandon.
As the objects of the girls’ affections, Cory Monteith’s Owen, Pierre Boulanger’s Theo and Luke Bracey’s Riley all more than perfectly fit the bill as the three young men who, like our trio of heroines, are roaming the world looking for their soul-mate.
See you at the travel agent!
This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.
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