Sean is a senior critic for Filmcritic.com.Judging a movie solely on its trailer often works against the film and rarely benefits an audience member. Marketing materials for Monte Carlo, as an example, made it look like a zany mistaken-identity comedy modeled after the amateurish body-swapping comedies of the 1980s (think Like Father, Like Son) instead of the sensitive, smart wish-fulfillment fantasy it actually turns out to be.
Once considered a possible vehicle for Nicole Kidman (back when it was a straight-up adaptation of the Jules Bass novel Headhunters), Monte Carlo reconfigures itself to showcase the talents of chipmunk-cheeked Disney Channel starlet Selena Gomez. She plays Grace, a Texas teen from the less-than-fortunate side of town who has been saving for a Parisian getaway since high school began. Days after graduation, she finally takes the trip with best friend Emma (Katie Cassidy) and somber stepsister Meg (Leighton Meester) in tow. But while the vacation gets off on a few wrong feet, things change once Grace is mistaken for bitchy socialite Cordelia Winthrop Scott (also played by Gomez), and decides to live the privileged lifestyle for a few days.
There's no denying that 20 years and two testicles separate me from Monte Carlo's target audience. Director Thomas Bezucha (The Family Stone) and his team of screenwriters fill their teen-girl getaway with flights on private jets, stays in posh hotels, scooter rides through exotic locales, dinners on yachts and dancing behind the velvet rope. It's a Young Adult novel on loan from the library that's beamed directly onto the screen.
Yet I did appreciate Bezucha's attempts at grounding his wispy travelogue photography with some real-life issues. Gomez and Meester make something of the stepsister subplot, with the latter also grieving a deceased parent and not being ready to shake the sometimes-comforting blanket of sorrow. Cassidy looks beyond her high school beauty queen image to wonder if it's wrong to settle with the rugged, loyal, small-town boyfriend she's got back home. (It helps that he looks like Glee star Cory Monteith.)
By remembering his audience, Bezucha musters an admirable teen dramedy that's brainier than a Kate Hudson rom-com and deeper than other vehicles meant to convert TV-sized personalities like Gomez into big-screen actresses. Whether she maintains this level of stardom is undecided. She's a small performer and doesn't show a lot of range here. But Carlo, itself, sidesteps the fairy tale formula from time to time to portray authentic teenage girls overcoming their past, accepting their present and figuring out their future ... set against a gorgeous European backdrop.
