Monte Carlo

Plot synopsis:
The film begins with 18-year old Grace Ann Bennett (Selena Gomez) working at a diner with her best friend, Emma Danielle Perkins (Katie Cassidy), a high school dropout. Grace adds another pinch of change to her jar marked Graces Fund for Paris.At graduation, the valedictorian is speaking when Meg Kelly-Bennett (Leighton Meester), Graces uptight older stepsister, comes in late. Everybody turns to look, embarrassing Meg. That night, at dinner, Graces stepdad (Brett Cullen) announces that he has paid for all the girls to go on a trip to France. Meg, who does not want to go with the girls, refuses. She states that all her life she wanted to be friends with Emma Perkins, and now shes stuck on going on a soon-to-be-disastrous trip.The trip proves to be horrible, as they have been ripped off for a small suite and have a small amount of time to visit so many places. They get left behind by their tour guide and trudge through the streets as it rains, seeking coverage in a posh hotel.As the girls dry up and Grace goes into a stall, Cordelia Winthrop-Scott, a spoiled British heiress (Selena Gomez) comes in, complaining on her phone about a charity event she must attend. Meg and Emma, after Cordelia leaves, try to convince Grace that they look exactly alike, but Grace does not believe this until they return to the lobby and everyone mistakes her as Cordelia.The girls spend the night in Cordelias suite while Cordelia leaves to go elsewhere. As they leave the next day, they are attacked by hungry paparazzi with their cameras into Cordelias limo. They realize they are on their way to Monte Carlo.The next day, the girls meet Theo, the son of the philanthropist hosting Cordelia. Theo thinks of Cordelia is a snotty brat, and is cold to the girls. He escorts them to a ball, with Mika's "Love Today" is playing in the background, where Grace encounters a problem as she meets Cordelias suspicious Aunt Alicia. Emma, seeking the wealth she always wanted with her boyfriend Owen, dances with a prince.The girls return to the hotel. That afternoon, the girls relax on the beach. Emma and Meg make snide remarks to each other, Meg accusing Emma of wasting her life by dropping out of school to model, saying nobody ever missed her. Emma responded by saying Megs mother probably didnt miss Meg either, causing Meg to storm out and bump into Riley, someone she met while in France.Afterwards, Grace plays polo with Theo. Aunt Alicia, suspicious, calls Cordelias phone. The real Cordelia picks up, and later, Aunt Alicia confronts Grace, thinking that Cordelia has hired a lookalike to take her place while she parties wild. She threatens Grace, stating that if her plan foils, she will have her arrested for identity fraud. After the game, Theo takes Grace to a special place of his, and together they watch fireworks.At the same time, Emma is dining with the prince she met the night before. They are on a boat where a party is going is on, with Mika's "Relax (Take It Easy)" is playing in the background. She finds him to be obnoxious and arrogant as he makes a snide remark about her picking up the dishes, telling her there are people for that. She replies just as coldly: I know, grabs her things, then goes off to a different part of the boat.Meanwhile, Meg is with Riley. He tells her that he used to be a talented rugby player, but an injury kept him in the hospital for a year. He enjoys traveling. Meg opens up to him about her mother, who was hospitalized for almost two years. She tells him that she wanted to scream when people showed sympathy way too much, and Riley replies that maybe she should. She doesnt, but the two share a passionate moment.As the girls have fun, Owen, Emmas boyfriend, a truck-loving football player, comes to France to look for Emma. When he hears that the girls are in Monte Carlo, he goes there to win Emma back. Everything begins to crumble with Cordelias unexpected return. Theo, thinking that Cordelia is Grace, kisses her, causing him to get slapped.Cordelia then goes up to the room and out on the balcony, where, the girls, after cleaning the room, hid. Cordelia goes back in the room and throws away a half-eaten apple left behind by Meg, and then sees a newspaper about the girls in the trash can. She runs to go see if the prized Bvlagri necklace planned to be sold at an auction is still there. It is not, as Meg put it in Rileys backpack for safekeeping. Cordelia then calls the police.The girls chase after Riley, now on his way to Italy. They are too late, and go back to the hotel. Grace, in a moment of sheer determination, kisses Theo, causing him to tell a bellboy: I dont understand women. The manager asks if she requested the cops, and Grace tells him no. The three then proceed up to the suite, where they encounter Riley, who returns the necklace to them. The three confront Cordelia with the necklace now in their hands.Furious, Cordelia calls the police again, but Emma ties her up in another room while the police come. They say they heard screaming, in which Meg replies that Grace was so happy she found the necklace. The police go back down, and so does Meg. Upstairs, Emma meets with Owen.The two reconcile just as Cordelia escapes. By now Grace and Meg have gone to the charity event, which Cordelia crashes. She tells everyone that Grace is an imposter, shocking Theo. Cordelia demands Grace arrested, but nobody cares as her aunt Alicia has bought the necklace for $6 million Euros. Theo leaves. After the trip of a lifetime, Meg climbs atop an ancient ruin with Riley, and together they scream.At a place of their own, Emma cooks while Owen installs the dimmed lights she always wanted, and the two laugh. Grace, volunteering with children in Romania, travels to the post office just as Theo sees her. The two introduce themselves again, smiling.The credits role playing Mika's "Blame It On The Girls" and ending with Selena Gomez & The Scene's "Who Says".

Tags: comedy

Review:
I recommend this to anyone with a bit of extra time who just wants to watch a relaxing, cheerful movie like me (a 21 year old girl XD) or for anyone who wants a nice, clean movie to watch for or with their children.
You genuinely like each of these characters (except the mean girl) by the end of the show whether you liked them at the beginning or not.This movie is perfect for its target audience of tweens/early teens and I wish more movies like this were available with today's stars!.
"Monte Carlo" follows Grace, Meg and Emma as they travel to Paris, the city of light.
Also, I found that each girl's romance stories were unrealistic, underdeveloped and mostly boring.However, while watching the movie, I did find myself enjoying myself and even chuckling a bit.
Monte Carlo is a sweet romantic comedy in the same vain as The Lizzie McGuire Movie, the story is about a small town gal from Texas, her best friend and her uptight sister who all travel to Paris for a week, only to get separated from their tour group, they take refuge in the nearest hotel and one of the gals is mistaken for a wealthy British heiress and that's when the story takes off.
Cue lots of awkward situations and a cute love story and there you have it.Selena Gomez is quite nice to watch, as is Miss Meester and Katie Cassidy, all three girls have their own storyline throughout the film and each get their chance to shine.
Give it a go, its not a classic teen film but hey, it's nice enough for a movie night with the girls.
Based loosely on the novel Headhunters by Jules Bass, the release of Monte Carlo this week in the US and Singapore would probably be deemed suicidal, if not for its appeal to the intended demographic left out of the testosterone filled Transformers, and the more mature movie going audience who would likely flock to Larry Crowne starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts (opens in Singapore next week to avoid a three-way battle).And appeal to that group it does, playing up to its favourite things that if I were a girl I would gobble this up hook, line and sinker.
Sounds like fun, doesn't it?But that's about it, with the film very much set in territory already explored in countless of films dealing with coincidental, mistaken identity, where the Prince and the Pauper switch places – this one being one sided and without permission – for the pauper to experience the high life, leading onto moralistic questions such as whether one will be enticed by things superficial and materialistic, or will one return to one's humble roots with morals, principles and values intact.
It's the same old usual themes about wanting to fulfill personal objectives and dreams, whatever they may be, whether done so through hard work, or just by meeting the right people.Selena Gomez takes on two roles here, although her role as the mean British heiress Cordelia Winthrop Scott looks like she's suffering from a constant PMS.
Her other main role is of course as Grace, the simple waitress from Texas who had graduated and is taking her graduating trip to Paris with best friend Emma (Katie Cassidy), only for her parents to get her half-sister Meg (Leighton Meester) to tag along despite their hating of each other's guts.
So begins the journey of self-discovery for all – Grace to decide whether she should keep up with the charade she and her pals find themselves in at the risk of being a fraud to Theo (Pierre Boulanger) of the Hotel de Paris, Emma to try and figure out if the high life and potentially rich royal-family linked acquaintance can be anything more than friends as compared to her troubled boyfriend Owen (Cory Monteith), and Meg learning to becoming less uptight while getting swept off her feet by Aussie tourist Riley (Luke Bracey).Yes, that's all the romance lined up, as they zip around the different places in luxurious Monte Carlo, having the second act centered around closure in and around a million dollar necklace meant for a charity auction.
In some ways that was the best part of the film as finally there is a sense of purpose and urgency to try and resolve everything amicably and set their identities straight as their charade comes to the inevitable close, with well timed, expected comedy to pave the way to a finale that ends all too conveniently.Naturally the landscapes make up the film with its far flung, beautiful locations that would just make you want to save up enough to jet set in the same fashion, trying very hard to make you forget the many plot conveniences and coincidences, for the very obviously predictable way this teeny bopper film is appealing to the teenage female population through the latest It girl making that transition from music to film.
They almost come branded with a Disney logo on their forehead, and they present themselves like Disney is always watching them, making sure they maintain the "pretty-girl-who-is-always-clean" persona every one of their actresses has.Speaking of Disney Channel, I'm curious why this film was so special it had to go theatrical.
I'm sure parents might be forced by their eight year olds to watch this and I'm sure they'll think "I'm glad we didn't have to pay money to see this in the theaters." Monte Carlo is about Grace (Gomez), a teenage girl who has just graduated High School, and plans to go on a big trip to Paris.
So the three girls now travel to Monte Carlo where they are living someone else's life.No doubt that little girls still amused by Disney Channel's antics will find this film perfectly acceptable, and Selena Gomez to be a role-model.
We also get contrived love stories for each of the three girls, and this winds up feeling more like Sex and the City than a Disney Channel film.The message is "be yourself, not someone else" as if we hadn't heard it before, the soundtrack boasts bubblegum pop much like every other teenage film, and by the end of the film nothing is learned from the girls or even hinted that they even found what they did was wrong.
So instead of telling us to "be ourselves," Disney is possibly saying "go ahead and lie about who you are and fake your identity, the consequences won't be as serious as long as you say you learned something." Most illogical.Monte Carlo's problem doesn't stem from the three leads.
I'm hoping one day Selena Gomez will ditch her Disney Channel persona, and hopefully, take on an acting career filled with drama roles and very heartfelt comedies.
But, as of now, she is stuck advertising for a network that lost its touch many, many years ago.Starring: Selena Gomez, Leighton Meester, and Katie Cassidy.
The main plot of "Monte Carlo" deals with high school student and part-time waitress Grace (Selena Gomez) who has always dreamed of going to Paris, France, with her best friend Emma (Katie Cassidy).
However, as luck would have it, her uptight stepsister Meg (Leighton Meester) also tags along for the trip which turns out to be a huge disappointment.Things change when the trio pop into a five-star hotel and Grace is mistaken for a spoilt and wealthy British socialite.
Even if we accept the odds that Grace gets to meet her lookalike Cordelia Winthrop Scott (also Gomez) at a place and time when Cordelia plans to 'disappear', we are 'forced' to accept many other ridiculous plot contrivances - just so that the mistaken identity caper can run its course.
Ditto that for its love stories (each of the girls have one).Monte Carlo is obviously another vehicle for Disney starlet and singer Selena Gomez (after last year's "Ramona & Beezuz").
This is a lovely looking film with a beautiful, talented young star, Gomez.
Girls, young and old, will like the film and patiently overlook the dull bits.
First I am not a girl and it is a typically girl movie, second I am too old for something like this.Since I have to fill lines for this film I will fill them by saying that actors are pretty and costumes are nice.
France is fantastic like always, and it is pity that I do not have money to live there.I love France, every bit of it, from Paris to Cote D*Azzure I could freely make France my home, but I still think this film is for someone else.
Can an awkward Texas girl (Selena Gomez) fool the social elite and find love along the way?
But it didn't quite meet my expectations -- what with the half-baked affluence of the setting, its formulaic and hard-to-believe plot, and the love teams that didn't have that tickling sensation one was supposed to get when watching romantic films.
The plot is superficial, but it is a romantic comedy anyway so it's supposed to be light in order to serve its purpose of making the audience laugh and quiver.If Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts, who were the original choices according to IMDb.com, starred in the movie instead of the younger cast, I probably would've enjoyed the movie more..
Here's her review: Monte Carlo is an awesome movie for girl's night.
My favorite scene when Cordelia Winthrop Scott, Grace's look-alike, comes to the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo and Grace and her friends have to scramble around trying to make her hotel room look perfect again so they don't get caught.
I recommend Monte Carlo for ages 10 and up because there aren't any sexual scenes or inappropriate language, but younger kids may not enjoy the story of young adults traveling to Italy.
I give Monte Carlo 4 out of 5 stars because it's a great film for you and your friends!
It wasn't too bad, as it was fun watching Selena Gomez in a dual role as an ordinary girl from Texas and a snotty British heiress.
This was an OK film about a girl from Texas who saves up with tip money from her job as a waitress to go to Paris after her high school graduation with here friend and stepsister, everything goes wrong there, and she winds up in Monte Carlo and gets mistaken for a look-alike British heiress and winds up taking her place in a fundraiser.
A fun filled teen movie for less intellectuals and more fan followers of Selena Gomez.
Monte Carlo is a combination of very little bit of fun, romance, adventure, beauty, beautiful girl, luxury, etc., which makes it a one time watchable movie as a general on a late night lazy evening and two time watchable for it's exquisite locations, exotic trips and luxury hotels.
And if you are a hard core Selena Gomez fan of her music or beauty anyway their will come many pause moments for you as there will be two avatars of Selena's in this movie one a middle class (she is definitely not a poor farm girl) and second the heiress of Monaco empire.
Grace (Selena Gomez) is a small town girl from Texas.
I will admit that I am a fan of the works by Selena Gomez, Leighton Meester, and Katie Cassidy, so whoever came up with the idea to put all three of them in a movie together is a genius.
The three of them share a terrific, irresistible chemistry that deserves a lot better than the movie they're in, with the best performance of the bunch, I'll say, belonging to miss Meester.Like I said, I'll give it a passing grade, but if you're looking for a truly great rom-com, this sadly isn't it.**1/2 out of ****.
But good acting and singing!It was that kind of movie you watch after a long day and you just wanna cuddle up with a candy bowl together with that Disney friend of yours..
The movie was full of tragicomic situations like some cultural difference, funny moments in France for example missing the bus and the hotels that they suppose they have high standards but they are very poor qualified.
With her newest movie, Monte Carlo, Selena Gomez has successfully been released from the Disney Channel label cast upon her by the immensely successful series, Wizards of Waverly Place.I do not mean to imply that Gomez has, in any way, left her good- girl image or abandoned her role-model status among teens, tweens, and assorted others across the globe – rather that she has progressed in her career to the point that she can now be seen as a serious actress.
Gomez, along with talented cast mates Leighton Meester (who also shows her range as a thespian in her rare non Gossip Girl role) and Katie Cassidy, star in a beautiful story of love, heartbreak, and maturity.Based on a previously done plot, Monte Carlo is about a young woman from Texas played by Selena Gomez, who is mistaken for an heiress, also Selena Gomez, and, along with her blue-collar best friend and bookish stepsister, is whisked into the idyllic world of luxury.
Despite this formulaic plot, the movie hits a surprising range of emotional grace notes, including several moments of genuine regret, and concludes with an understated moral lesson about the value of self-respect over social status.In Monte Carlo, these young women struggle to understand and appreciate the world around them, and in doing so come to understand who they truly are.
These jokes – both blunt and subtle – keep the audience thoroughly fixated on the story and provide the film with the organic atmosphere it needs to make a true impact on viewers.Monte Carlo is more than just a standard tween film or Disney movie – it is a must-see summer movie that boasts great acting, stupendous ideals, and enormous potential..
This Monte Carlo stars Selena Gomez in two roles, one as a kid from Texas who with her sister and stepsister Leighton Meester and Katie Cassidy get a Parisian vacation for graduation.
Okay, so i get that some people are just sick of seeing Selena Gomez or any kind of Disney child actor getting the limelight in any feature film, but there's no reason to give a decent movie 5 stars just because of it.Selena Gomez did not do terrible in this movie, but aside from that, Katie Cassidy and Leighton Meester did a great acting job in this film.
She plays a girl called Grace who travels to Paris with her best friend played by Katie Cassidy and her stepsister Meg played by Leighton Messer.But when she gets mistaken for a British heiress who is ALSO played by Selena Gomez she decides to become her for the day while the real heiress is off gallivanting and being a bad chick.
So she ends up going to Monte Carlo instead of staying in the City of Love Paris.
I would say in my top 20 why well lets begin with what I like about this movie the settings of Monte Carlo and Paris.
Now to the story don't get me wrong like I said I did enjoy this movie but the story was nice but it gets kinda boring in the 2nd half cause its all about boys and Grace's best friend's boyfriend played by Cory Moneith shows up and MAN her friend is portrayed as a spoilt whining brat.Overall I did enjoy this movie and if your from the UK and saw a show called Dr Who then keep a wary eye out for the actress that played Donna with David Tennant, Catherine Tate as Selena Gomez's other half's aunt.Overall im giving this a 6..
Monte CarloWhile travelling abroad, it's important for Americans to remember that when in trouble, they can always get help at the nearest, bombed-out, US embassy.However, the three Yankees in this romantic-comedy are the ones causing the trouble.When her stepsister, Meg (Leighton Meester), compromises her and her friend's Paris vacation, Grace (Selena Gomez) and Emma (Katie Cassidy) try to make the best of it.When their tour turns out to be a drag, however, they ditch into a hotel where Grace encounters her exact double, an heiress (Selena Gomez).After overhearing the socialite's secret travel arrangements, Grace assumes her identity and takes full advantage of her scheduled trip to Monte Carlo.While it follows the footsteps of other worldly girl movies, Monte Carlo differs from the bunch by basing its love stories around social class.Furthermore, it proves that identity theft is only bad if the victim has massive debt.
That the movie is set in Paris and Monte Carlo is refreshingly new.
love and friendship .also i would like to say that the cinematography was wonderful and it was a big publicity for Monte Carlo,the movie was full of absurd situations like some cultural difference, funny moments in France and how some hotels aren't up to standards there when they are being advertised in the best way possible .
It is simple and sometimes silly, but for its target audience it works very well.Before I saw this movie I had very little exposure to Selena Gomez.
And, I think she pulls it off very well.Selena Gomez as Grace goes with her friend and her step sister to Paris.
Then, Grace gets mistaken for her look-alike, a wealthy British girl Cordelia Winthrop Scott.
The movie has a decent, well liked, and popular lead cast, lovely European locations, a funny comedic plot but none of it really takes off.
I think I expected the film to fit the demographic of pre-teen...12-14 year olds but instead, at best, this is made for 10-12 year olds.Selena Gomez plays her dual roles in the film as down to earth likable Grace, and the uppity, snotty, entitled Cordelia.
Katie Cassidy plays Grace's best friend.
Monte Carlo (2011): Dir: Thomas Bezucha / Cast: Selena Gomez, Leighton Meester, Katie Cassidy, Cory Monteith, Theo Marchand: Surprisingly better than one may at first believe.