Un-amazing Grace; Stealth Media looks at the film Cannes panned

Its Cannes week and Stealth Media are here! There’s usually one film every year that gets widely panned by the critics and media. This year it seems that the film that has bitten the bullet is Grace of Monaco.

Directed by Olivier Dahan and starring Nicole Kidman and Tim Roth the film is the story of former Hollywood star Grace Kelly’s crisis of marriage and identity. Kidman stars as Grace and Tim Roth is Monaco's Prince Rainier III.

Here’s a selection of some of the reviewers comments…

“A timeless camp classic”

“…often side splittingly funny. The trouble is, it’s not meant to be a comedy.”

“A stiff, stagey affair…”

The Royal Family of Monaco even weighed in with some heavy criticism “This film does not praise Monaco or the great man that was my father, Prince Rainier." Princess Stephanie was quoted as saying.

Press screening

The Press screening featured much laughter according to the BBC and there’s a genuine feeling of confusion about how a director of Dahan’s talent could create such a miss-fire.

Dahan previously directed La Vie En Rose, the widely acclaimed Edith Piaf biopic that was heavily praised and became the third-highest grossing French-Language film in the United States since 1980.

Dahan picked Marion Cotillard to play the part of Edith Piaf that won her an Academy Award and launched her international career. He doesn’t seem to have had the same success with Nicole Kidman who plays Grace Kelly.

Release has been cancelled

It’s also been widely reported that there’s been something of a spat between Dahan and the film’s American distributor Harvey Weinstein. According to the Guardian, Weinstein has pulled the film from release just two months prior to its debut in cinemas.

Weinstein has also been quoted as making derogatory comments about the film.

Weinstein is famous for being able to pick an Oscar winner, and has a past track record that includes; The Artist and The King’s Speech. Dahan and Weinstein have come to logger heads over proposed changes to the cut of the film.

Cutting room floor

Weinstein has previously re-cut several of films he’s taken on. He’s also famous for demanding the 20 minutes be dropped here and there before he takes a film under his wing. His nickname in the industry is ‘Harvey Scissorhands’.

It seems for now that Dahan and Weinstein have come to an agreement but the planned release won’t be helped by the legion of negative reviews the film has received.

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