Selena Gomez, star of Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place and, off-screen, Justin Bieber's girlfriend, lives out the ultimate tween-girl makeover fantasy in escapist romantic comedy Monte Carlo.
Gomez's 21st-century Cinderella, Grace Bennett, is a small-town Texas teenager who gets mistaken for spoiled socialite Cordelia Winthrop Scott (also played by Gomez) while on a budget holiday in Paris with her best friend Emma and her older stepsister Meg (played by Gossip Girls Katie Cassidy and Leighton Meester). Taking advantage of the situation - and the absent heiress's wardrobe - the trio travel to Monte Carlo to take her place at a swanky charity event. Despite the odd farcical glitch, and the odd spot of friction between party girl Emma and sobersides Meg, they enjoy the high life amid a whirl of posh frocks, polo matches and glittering balls and find romance with the men of their dreams.
It's all frothy and silly, but Gomez and her co-stars are sweet and appealing and are sure to win over the film's target audience. Incidentally, the character of airhead heiress Cordelia is British, though a ringer for Paris Hilton in every other respect, which gives Gomez a chance to do what passes for a snooty English accent and provides a cameo role for Catherine Tate as the socialite's suspicious aunt.
Released on DVD & Blu-ray on Monday 12th March by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
