What gets more attention than a famous person starring as another famous person in a biopic? A famous person playing a glamorous famous person, that's what. Nicole Kidman has proven that she's up for just about any challenge on screen, but we're still anxious to see what happens when she takes on an even bigger screen icon, Grace Kelly, in the upcoming Grace of Monaco. Despite a November 27 release date we've yet to see a proper trailer for the film, which makes this brief teaser-- in which Nicole Kidman says literally nothing-- the best we can do for now.
Does she pull off her impersonation of the iconic star of Rear Window and To Catch A Thief, who famously retired from acting at the age of 26 to marry Prince Rainier III of Monaco? Kidman certainly looks as delicate and glamorous as Kelly did in many famous photographs… but Kidman herself is also a delicate and glamorous movie star, so that's no surprise. And anyway, the story of Grace of Monaco takes place after Kelly's acting career, when she is serving as the Princess of Monaco and working behind the scenes to avert a potential war between France and her tiny country. Yes, it's a story about a movie star working to a void a war based on a tax dispute. At the very least it won't be like any other Hollywood biopic… but whether or not that's a good thing remains to be seen.
The fact that Grace of Monaco is still so hidden is not exactly a great sign, as I discussed in this week's Oscar Eye, no matter how many strong names are behind it. In addition to Kidman there's Tim Roth as the prince, with Frank Langella, Parker Posey and Derek Jacobi in various supporting roles, and behind the camera is Olivier Dahan, who directed Marion Cotillard to her Best Actress Oscar win in La vie en rose. Sadly, Dahan's most recent film is My Own Love Song, starring Forest Whitaker and Renee Zellweger and loathed by the handful of people who actually saw it. So Dahan can direct someone to an Oscar… but he can also take two previous winners and drive them into the ground.
Hopefully this teaser will finally lead to a proper trailer in which Kidman actually gets to speak. In the meantime the skepticism I've been feeling about this project from the beginning is, sadly, not going anywhere.
