Mona Lisa Smile Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)December 18th, 2003
MONA LISA SMILE
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Unconventional Berkeley grad Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts) takes a position teaching art history at the prestigious Wellesley College for women in 1953 and is shocked to learn that her students view their education as a prereq for a good marriage. Katherine must fight long-held doctrines to open their minds to other possibilities in "Mona Lisa Smile."
Director Mike Newell ("Pushing Tin," "Donnie Brasco") has mounted a handsome production featuring a trio of America's brightest young female stars, but "Mona Lisa Smile" is no "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie." The screenwriting duo behind the "Planet of the Apes" remake, Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, use the restrictive mores of the 1950s to fashion a soap opera whose characters are oft too modern for its decade. A talented cast helps "Mona Lisa Smile" deliver as a high end chick flick.
Katherine is overwhelmed upon her arrival. She turns down the lush school accommodations when she learns rules forbid male visitors and a hot plate and takes a room at the home of Speech, Elocution and Poise instructor Nancy Abbey (Marcia Gay Harden, "Mystic River"). She learns from the secretary of President Jocelyn Carr (Marian Seldes, "Hollywood Ending") that she only obtained the position because the candidate they had chosen took a position at Brown. Then, during her first class, her students embarrass her in front of an evaluator by already knowing everything she had prepared. 'We're a far cry from Oakland,' observes Giselle Levy (Maggie Gyllenhaal, "Secretary") in a snotty tone that represents class attitude.
It is this first confrontational scene that is one of the elements of "Mona Lisa Smile" which rings false. That a class of about fifty girls would all have read a full semester's text in order to show up a non-Ivy League teacher is just too much conspiratorial ill will. It also seems unlikely that well bred young women of 1953 would mouth off in a 1953. Of course, Watson wins them over by standing up and introducing some thought-provoking ideas, although Soutine's "Carcass" is dismissed as only grotesque By Katherine's hardest case, Betty Warren (Kirsten Dunst, "Spiderman"). Betty, whose mother (Donna Mitchell, TV's "All My Children") is Head of the Alumni, is a first-class witch whose poison pen editorials have already resulted in the dismissal of Katherine's roommate, school nurse Amanda Armstrong (Juliet Stevenson, "Nicholas Nickelby"), for dispensing birth control to students (unimaginably illegal until 1966 in Massachusetts). It is also difficult to swallow that Betty would be best friends with Joan Brandwyn (Julia Stiles, "Save the Last Dance"), an open-minded young woman Katherine encourages to pursue a law degree. The last of the principle girls is Connie (Ginnifer Goodwin, TV's "Ed"), a sweet young thing too cute for Betty's put downs who begins a tentative romance with Betty's cousin Charlie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach, "American Splendor," giving the most realistic performance of the film's young men). Giselle is an ill-conceived character, a Mary Magdalene type who idolizes Katherine even though Katherine begins a relationship with Bill Dunbar (Dominic West, "Chicago"), the Italian instructor known for sleeping with students (something which should have appalled Katherine).
Roberts is fine as Katherine, playing just the type of character students at an all girls' school would gravitate towards. Dunst is terrific playing a thoroughly unlikable character with enough depth to evoke compassion for her plight (an overbearing mother, a marriage almost out of "Far From Heaven"). Stiles is also first rate as a polished intellectual. Gyllenhaal does her best with boozy promiscuity, but her character is the most cliched. Goodwin has real presence, perhaps the most natural of the lot. Gay-Harden, so fine in "Mystic River," comes across like an alien life form here, a repressed spinster losing her grip on reality. With the exception of Moss-Bachrach, none of the men (John Slattery ("The Station Agent") and West as Robert's lovers, Topher Grace ("Traffic") and Jordan Bridges ("Frequency") as Joan and Betty's respective fiances) make much of an impression. In a case of cameo overkill, Tori Amos appears as a wedding singer.
"Mona Lisa Smile" looks great, its women all photographed lovingly by cinematographer Anastas N. Michos ("Death to Smoochy"). Michael Dennison's ("Unfaithful") unflashy costuming reflects the period and its individuals. At 117 minutes, the film has no flab.
"Mona Lisa Smile" should not be taken as seriously as some of the issues it tries to raise. It's a glossy soap opera embedded in high-minded surroundings.
B-
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