Mona Lisa Smile Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)December 22nd, 2003
Full Price Feature
Mona Lisa Smile transcends all expectations you might have of a cast that consists of Julia Roberts, Kristen Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Julia Stiles. I should point out the unpublicized Ginnifer Goodwin, the fourth of the main clutch of girls and for me, the standout of the group. Director Mike Newell, who did a similar movie-stars-into-major-players transformation with the actors in Traffic, turns what some probably are assuming is Dead Poets Society With Chicks into a really excellent film. Everything about it is good - the acting, the lighting, the dialogue, the story, the costumes, even the balanced viewpoints. I kept turning to my companion (and she to me) and muttering, "what great dialogue" "look at that beautiful lighting" "wow that was incredible" "her diction and mannerisms are perfect for that character." We said more, but you get the point.
Besides the adolescent fantasy material on the poster, there are also heavy hitters like Juliet Stevenson and Marcia Gay Harding in the cast, playing gentle souls with much depth even in their brief storylines. In general, we get to feel that we know all these girls just enough to understand them, but not divert the story of Katharine Watson's (Julia Roberts) bohemian imprint on 1953 Wellesley College's corseted administrators, and Wellesley's imprint on her. The movie makes its points well, so I need not dwell on them here. This is about far more than an unconventional role model swooping in and fixing everyone who doesn't know they are broken. It's about more than the fallout of the post WWII reconfiguration of intelligent women's available options, and it's about more than the illegitimacy of pursuing your MRS degree at one of the most rigorous (and freakishly tradition-laden) schools in New England. And, hell, it's just a well-written story.
Checking out the screenwriters' pedigrees, no one could be more shocked than I am; it made me second guess myself for a minute. Challenge your assumptions and check this movie out. It is staggering to think that the attitudes on display at this frighteningly tradition-bound university for women were so deeply entrenched and irrefutable only 50 years ago. Fifty! Some of Katherine's notions (since she is an art history professor) stem from the notion (as played out in the world of visual art) of challenging the norm, and being open to considering that which you might find strange or ugly, rather than dismissing it out of hand. It is hard for us today to think of Van Gogh as particularly decadent or subversive; we have assimilated his concepts into our visual world. These people are living in the world where Jackson Pollock and Pablo Picasso are still fringe dwellers and artistic heathens.
Full disclosure here: I don't get Pollock, it does nothing for me; but the difference between my apathy to his work and the reaction of the administration of Wellesley is that they regard modern works as degenerative, subversive slop to pollute the mind and prevent young ladies from focusing on their wifely duties. Me, it's just not my thing. But despite what some film companions and I have discussed in the past, I don't discredit it as do the people against whom Katherine Watson rails. She uses people's reactions to art to reveal who her students are, and how willing they are to think for themselves. The screenplay does the same for us, peeling back layers of her different students and finding where their hearts truly reside. I went in thinking it would be fluffy and forgettable, but I found it extremely rewarding.
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These reviews (c) 2003 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
