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Helen Moorhouse: Why Nicole Kidman lacks what was amazing about Grace

Helen Moorhouse – 11 October 2012

IF you google it, the scene is called 'Rear Window -- The Kiss'. Shot in technicolour, the camera pans around the view from the window and settles on a snoozing Jimmy Stewart, over whom an ominous shadow looms, growing closer.

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He opens his eyes to find it's Grace Kelly, about to plant the perfect kiss on his lips. Not too long, not too short, incredibly pure, yet incredibly erotic. It's classic Hitchcock. All lighting and costumes and a beautiful icy blonde oozing unexpected sensuality out of a perfect pout.

And over this, yet another ominous shadow looms. Something truly insidious. The biopic.

The time has come to take on Grace, in a movie entitled 'Grace of Monaco'. Starring Nicole Kidman in the title role. As if one car crash wasn't bad enough.

Fast forward almost 60 years from that incredible moment in 'Rear Window' to another kiss.

But instead of it being all melty and tingly, it's Kidman, "pashing" husband Keith Urban in public. She looks on the verge of straining something vital as she forces her lower lip to touch her husband's. From any angle, it's about as sexy as something you'd find down the side of the couch.

It's inconceivable that someone as classy as Grace Kelly ever "pashed" anyone and while pictures of Kidman in full costume and make-up (pictured) capture the necessary style and look, can she really capture that incredible, ephemeral ' Essence of Kelly'?

Nicole Kidman is hugely successful and seems a genuinely lovely woman, but does she ever become anyone other than herself?

'Moulin Rouge'? Oh, it's Nicole Kidman, singing and catching consumption. 'The Hours'? Oh, it's Nicole Kidman with a massive fake nose. Bloody typecasting.

Kidman is a square peg in a Hollywood-shaped hole. But hark back to the flame-haired beauty and wild-eyed terror of 'Dead Calm' -- that was the girl who had Essence of Kidman.

If Kelly was the quintessential Ice Queen, then Kidman is Iceland.

And when it comes to channelling the princess, I have a funny feeling Kidman might be able to walk the walk, talk the talk and look the look, but can she amount to more than just a pretender to the throne?

Irish Independent

Donal Walsh during his appearance on RTE's Saturday Night SHow with Brendan O'Connoe. Picture courtesy RTE

More in Analysis(1 of 20 articles)

Brendan O'Connor: He took what life he had and made it matter Read More

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Donal Walsh during his appearance on RTE's Saturday Night SHow with Brendan O'Connoe. Picture courtesy RTE

Brendan O'Connor: He took what life he had and made it matter

When I heard Donal Walsh had died, I couldn't help thinking of Spike Milligan's line: I told you I was sick. For those of us who didn't know Donal, who didn't live with his illness and see its progress, there was a strange sense of surprise that he had really died, that his young life was actually snuffed out in the end. Obviously everyone knew Donal was dying. His imminent death was central to the life-affirming message he brought to the nation. But somehow, when the inevitable came, it was a shock. I suppose this young man, whom none of us really knew but we all felt we knew, didn't seem like the type to die.

Colm McCarthy: Retirement age must rise by eight or 10 years

Since 2008, economic policy in Ireland has been understandably focused upon the deflation of the bank credit bubble and its budgetary consequences. But Ireland faces serious economic policy problems which pre-date the financial crisis. Two reports released in recent weeks highlight one of the most serious – the unsustainable current system of retirement income provision. State pension schemes are unfunded (the social insurance 'fund' is just a book entry in the State accounts) and reliant entirely on the health of future tax revenues. If these fail to grow strongly, the State will struggle to meet pension commitments to its own employees and to the wider public who are covered by the contributory and non-contributory old-age pension schemes.

Paul Moran: Labour still between rock and a hard place

Our latest opinion poll, conducted earlier this month, shows little change in terms of party support, with most of them tipping along at more or less the same position as last month. Both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have slipped back (an insignificant) one point, with Sinn Fein the apparent beneficiary. It is as you were for both Labour and the independents. There has been some stabilisation of the Labour vote over the past couple of months, stalling the steady decline that we witnessed earlier in the year.

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Donal Walsh during his appearance on RTE's Saturday Night SHow with Brendan O'Connoe. Picture courtesy RTE

Brendan O'Connor: He took what life he had and made it matter

When I heard Donal Walsh had died, I couldn't help thinking of Spike Milligan's line: I told you I was sick. For those of us who didn't know Donal, who didn't live with his illness and see its progress, there was a strange sense of surprise that he had really died, that his young life was actually snuffed out in the end. Obviously everyone knew Donal was dying. His imminent death was central to the life-affirming message he brought to the nation. But somehow, when the inevitable came, it was a shock. I suppose this young man, whom none of us really knew but we all felt we knew, didn't seem like the type to die.

Colm McCarthy: Retirement age must rise by eight or 10 years

Since 2008, economic policy in Ireland has been understandably focused upon the deflation of the bank credit bubble and its budgetary consequences. But Ireland faces serious economic policy problems which pre-date the financial crisis. Two reports released in recent weeks highlight one of the most serious – the unsustainable current system of retirement income provision. State pension schemes are unfunded (the social insurance 'fund' is just a book entry in the State accounts) and reliant entirely on the health of future tax revenues. If these fail to grow strongly, the State will struggle to meet pension commitments to its own employees and to the wider public who are covered by the contributory and non-contributory old-age pension schemes.

Paul Moran: Labour still between rock and a hard place

Our latest opinion poll, conducted earlier this month, shows little change in terms of party support, with most of them tipping along at more or less the same position as last month. Both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have slipped back (an insignificant) one point, with Sinn Fein the apparent beneficiary. It is as you were for both Labour and the independents. There has been some stabilisation of the Labour vote over the past couple of months, stalling the steady decline that we witnessed earlier in the year.

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