FILM REVIEW: Monte Carlo

In this teen rom-com, Grace (Selena Gomez from "Wizards of Waverly Place"), a high school graduate, take her dream trip to Paris with her best friend Emma (Katie Cassidy from "Gossip Girl" and "Melrose Place") and her estranged step sister Meg (Leighton Meester from "Gossip Girl"). She expects it to be the kind of adventure she's seen in movies and magazines, but once they get left behind by their rushed low-budget tour group and she's mistaken for Cordelia Winthrop Scott, a British heiress, she gets more than she's bargained for. Eager to salvage what's left of her trip with the luxuries her mistaken identity has provided her with—from a fully loaded suite to a glamorous wardrobe—she has to pretend to be interested in Theo (Pierre Boulanger), an equally rich guy, who finds her doppelganger to be vapid, selfish, and unbearable. Gomez achieves what Hilary Duff attempted in The Lizzie McGuire Movie, delivering a pretty believable British accent and bitchy demeanor.

But Grace is not the only one who's having her very own Eat Pray Love experience. Emma, a failed model-turned-waitress, is tired of her boyfriend Owen (Cory Monteith from "Glee") trying to plan her future for her. And Meg, who's avoided enjoying any part of college (or life) ever since her mother died, is enjoying her freedom from responsibilities, rules, and schedules, and becomes enamored with Riley (Luke Bracey from "Home and Away"), a nomadic Aussie surfer.

The film becomes as much of a search for love as it is a search for one's self. And if that sounds too heavy for you, you can rest assured there are plenty of evasive hi-jinks, embarrassing moments, and goofy declarations of love.