Monte Carlo

Small-town Texas waitress/fresh grad Grace (Selena Gomez) yearns for more glam in her life, and she saves up for a dreamy Parisian jaunt with best friend Emma (Katie Cassidy). Things take a nosedive when Grace's uptight stepsister Meg (Leighton Meester) is forced to chaperone them. Still smarting from their dumpy Parisian accommodations, Grace is mistaken for a snotty British socialite, and—in a sly case of identity swap—she and the gals are suddenly whisked away to Monte Carlo for a fantasy vacation of glamorous hotels, glitzy parties, stunning clothes and eligible guys. But as a snoopy onlooker starts to piece together the charade, their frilly veneer threatens to unravel.

Take cover, it's a teen bomb! This powder keg mixes Gomez's pluckish Disney fairy dust with the combustible cynicism of Meester and the sex-kitten spark of Cassidy—both erstwhile co-stars on "Gossip Girl." It's Gomez, however, who's got the most at stake, as she leaves the teen-idol fold while avoiding a post-Disney trainwreck of Miley Cyrus proportions. She's off to a decent start with last year's politely received "Ramona and Beezus."

What's this? Proof that it's possible to make a solid teen movie without devolving into a pop-tart junk-a-thon? OMG indeed. Sure, the froth is still here—the giggles, the googly eyes, the princessy ball-gown bona fides—but it arrives more like a smartly portioned serving of Diet Coke rather than a bloated root beer float that threatens to whip you into a synthetic sugar high. Writer-director Thomas Bezucha ("The Family Stone") tackles the unabashedly lightweight fare with an equally light touch, reigning in the hamminess and clipping the cloying tics before they even start. Which means you won't really find grating, Taylor Swift-ish tween ditties on the soundtrack, which opts instead for a wonderfully brassy, big-band score by Pixar fave Michael Giacchino that's more old school that high school. It's great to see Meester, all wound up and prudish here, playing against bitchy type, but "Monte Carlo" coasts mainly on Gomez's easygoing, everygirl charm. She's also quite funny, switching between two roles and accents—she also plays the stuck-up British socialite—with the kind of restrained aplomb that recalls the spunky promise of a pre-meltdown Lindsay Lohan in 1998's "The Parent Trap." "Monte Carlo" isn't immune to its locked-in cliches—the strains of "La Vie En Rose," the swooning shots of the Eiffel Tower. But for a movie whose genre pitfalls loom like narrative tourist traps, it makes for a surprisingly pleasant travel buddy.

Nicole Kidman is a producer on the film, which was adapted from a novel that originally featured Midwest teachers who impersonate European socialites. At one point, she and Julia Roberts were attached to star in it

RATING 7/10