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Emma (Katie Cassidy), left, Meg (Leighton Meester) and Grace (Selena Gomez) get involved in a case of mistaken identity in the comic romance “Monte Carlo.” |
Of all the filmmakers who worked on “Monte Carlo,” only composer Michael Giacchino actually gets what the movie should be: a crazy Blake Edwards farce where nutty things happen (like lightning striking a character or two) and all the cast members are in on the joke.
That’s why the best part of Thomas Bezucha’s wilted romance is Giacchino’s music — a bouncy, brassy, ebullient score that would feel right at home in any of Edwards’ wacky “Pink Panther” movies from the 1960s and 1970s.
By turning “Monte Carlo” into a broad farce, Bezucha could sidestep the moral dilemmas his movie and characters try to ignore — hey, aren’t the three female leads lying, cheating and stealing for their own benefit? — and pump up the film’s woefully deficient humor quotient.
The story — entirely revealed in TV commercials and theatrical trailers — involves three young Texas women who go to France, where one of them gets mistaken for a rich and snooty, look-alike heiress.
Graduating senior Grace (Selena Gomez) has been saving money for years for the trip. Her considerably older best friend Emma (Katie Cassidy) plans to go with her, despite that her longtime boyfriend Owen (Corey Monteith) wants her to stay home.
At the last moment, Grace’s dad (Brett Cullen) insists that Grace’s nasty, pessimistic stepsister Meg (Leighton Meester) go with them. (Read more…)