Selena Gomez is an actress. Period. 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. The actresses do astounding jobs portraying their roles, the cinematography is excellent, and the scripting is brilliant. Through a movie with an overdone plot, themes of self-reflection and understanding percolate through the developing journeys of these three young women – while light humor weaves throughout the plot. 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.
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. The actresses do astounding jobs portraying their roles, the cinematography is excellent, and the scripting is brilliant. Through a movie with an overdone plot, themes of self-reflection and understanding percolate through the developing journeys of these three young women – while light humor weaves throughout the plot. 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.