Stars: Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dominic West, Juliet Stevenson, Marcia Gay Harden

Director: Mike Newell

Summary: Set in 1953, Katherine Watson joins the staff at Wellesley College, a prestigious 'women-only' school. Katherine becomes determined to make her pupils confront the social mores of the time and lead the lives they want to live rather than the ones society expects them to.

Mike Newell's MONA LISA SMILE is a pretty period film that combines a quaint pedagogical tale with a feminist dissection of traditional female roles in 1950s society. Julia Roberts leads an impressive cast of top young actresses including Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kirsten Dunst, and Julia Stiles. Roberts is Katherine Watson, a revolutionary art history teacher at Wellesley College in 1953. Though she has true admiration for her intelligent all-female students, she is perturbed that their interest in finding husbands takes precedence over their studies. Determined to instruct them in feminist values and teach them to be independent--defying the college's emphasis on breeding good wives, mothers, and homemakers--Watson is deemed subversive by the administration. Even Watson's identity--from California, over 30 years old, and unmarried--is problematic. And when she turns her class onto modern art rather than teaching the recommended classical curriculum, Watson is severely chastised by the staunchly conservative students and faculty.
Beautiful photography of the picture-perfect Wellesley campus combined with a perpetual parade of lovely period costumes makes MONA LISA SMILE a visual delight. Strong performances by each of the actresses, including Dunst uncharacteristically cast as a prim and proper prude, and Marcia Gay Harden as a boring tv-addicted spinster, only add to the splendour of this enjoyable film.

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Julia Roberts' command of the screen is so effortless, it's easy for moviegoers to take her for granted--but we shouldn't. Mona Lisa Smile--about a non-comformist teacher at a private school who encourages students to pursue their individuality--is pretty much an all-girls version of Dead Poets Societythat mixes 50s fashions with 70s feminist thought. However, its lack of ambition doesn't diminish the talent that's gone into it: the writing and directing are well-honed and skilful; the actors--a talent-studded cast featuring Marcia Gay Harden, Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Julia Stiles and Juliet Stevenson--are uniformly excellent. But without question, Mona Lisa Smilerides on Roberts' shoulders and she carries it with ease. She's possibly the only contemporary actor who simply owns a movie the way Bette Davis, Jean Arthur, or Claudette Colbert once did, radiating a engaging mix of intelligence, drive, and emotional warmth that cannot be matched. --Bret Fetzer

Aspect Ratio:	1.85 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Art Forum Featurette, College Then And Now Featurette, What Women Wanted 1953 Featurette, Filmographies, Elton John Music Video The Heart Of Every Girl, Theatrical Trailer
Subtitles:	Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Dutch, English, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Romanian, Serbian, Slovene
Year:	2003
Release Date:	July 12, 2004
Runtime:	114 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	C D T 34803
Keywords:	Lisa, General, Mona, Smile, Drama
Genre:	Drama