Grace of Monaco

Grace of Monaco (2014) is Olivier Dahan's biographical drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Nicole Kidman plays Grace Kelly, the Hollywood star who traded an Oscar and the soundstage for the throne of a tiny principality on the French coast.

The story picks up in the early 1960s, a few years into Grace's marriage to Prince Rainier III (Tim Roth). The palace calm is a front: Charles de Gaulle is squeezing Monaco over taxes and threatening to send in troops, the marriage is fraying, and Hitchcock comes knocking with an offer to lure the former actress back to film. Grace has to choose between the life she left and a part no script can supply — a real princess holding a country together.

Dahan is less interested in politics than in a woman inside a gilded cage: tight close-ups, couture gowns, the glittering Riviera. The cast includes Parker Posey, Frank Langella and Derek Jacobi. This is loose, ornate melodrama rather than documentary history, best for viewers who want mood and Kidman onscreen over strict accuracy. Stream Grace of Monaco (2014) online on iFILM.