Mona Lisa Smile [DVD] [2004]

Roberts is Katherine Watson, an art history teacher from California's public university system, who has the nerve to apply for - and get - a position on the faculty of the prestigious eastern college for women, Wellesley. Watson's goal is to make a difference in the lives of her students, but her Wacky West Coast feminism is immediately at odds with staid Wellesley tradition. The college is hardly more than a finishing school for marriage-bound debutantes. After all, it's 1953 and, at least according to contemporary cultural mores and commercial advertisers, a girl's ultimate dream is to be married to a successful white-collar professional, and have a house, children, washer and dryer, and a Hoover. To make things worse, Watson's first-day presentation in Art History 100 is gutted by a class that's already read the entire course syllabus. A humiliated Katherine must go to Plan B.

Watson's students are a mixed bag represented in the plot by: Betty (Kirsten Dunst), the patronizing and know-it-all editor of the school paper who's soon to be married to a young lawyer, Giselle (Maggie Gyllenhaal), the free spirit that sleeps around, and Joan (Julia Stiles), who's torn between becoming a lawyer and getting married. Katherine is determined to get Joan into Yale Law School. Of the three, Dunst gives the most poignant performance as the one whose dream comes up against hard reality. And Joan's heartfelt explanation to Watson of her final choice gives Watson pause.

There are several reasons why MONA LISA SMILE is an engaging, almost-excellent film. As a period piece, it's lavish in its depiction of the music, fashion, dance, advertising, and social expectations of the time. (The pre-determined role for young women of the upper-middle and upper classes will likely cause feminists to grip the arms of their seats with a white-knuckled fury.)

MONA LISA SMILE has that general gist of MR. HOLLAND'S OPUS (1995), i.e. the generally acknowledged but too rarely explored effect that a great teacher can have on young minds. The latter film was so excellent that, in comparison, I can't quite bring myself to award MONA LISA SMILE the same five stars. Compared to the career of Mr. Holland (Richard Dreyfuss), which spanned decades, Watson's is a relative flash-in-the-pan over one academic year. (Also, I didn't find it so credible that Wellesley's severely conservative president should have been so surprised with Watson's non-conformity. I mean, didn't the college interview Katherine before giving her the nod, especially as she was coming from such a plebeian background? What were they thinking?)

Lastly, there's Julia Roberts, who perhaps hasn't done so well in a leading role since ERIN BROCKOVICH, for which she won a Golden Globe as Best Actress. I wouldn't be surprised to see a nomination stemming from this performance. It's a genuine treat to see her again in something other than a fluffy, romantic comedy.

Mrs Watson is the common example of a lady that can see a step further than the people around her, in a community that is sticking to its strict academic background.

Magnificent film

What she finds, instead, is a group of highly intelligent, young women, who are more interested in marrying the leaders of tomorrow than in being leaders themselves. Ms. Watson succeeds in opening the minds of her students to the possibilities and choices life can offer and learns a little about such possibilities and choices herself. She also finds friendship and romance while at Wellesley. The film also focuses on four of her students, all of whom are given stellar portrayals by the young actresses playing them.

Elizabeth "Betty" Warren (Kirsten Dunst) is the quintessential fifties girl, obsessed with getting her Mrs. before getting her BA. She later discovers that one should be careful for what one wishes. She is also a nasty piece of work who doesn't care what misery for others her poison pen invectives and barbed comments cause. She eventually gets her comeuppance in a way that she never envisioned. Her best friend, Joan Brandwyn (Julia Styles), is a beautiful, highly intelligent, young woman who harbors a secret wish to become a lawyer. Yet, at the same time, she desperately wants to become a wife and mother. Hers is a decision between choices. She ultimately makes a choice that causes Ms. Watson some consternation but with which she is happy. Giselle Levy (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a young Jewish miss in a WASP environment who finds herself having short term affairs with her hunky professor and with an older, married man. Connie Baker (Ginnifer Goodwin) is a pleasingly plump, pretty cellist who finds true love, only to find it derailed by the ever evil Betty.

Marcia Gay Harden is brilliant in the supporting role of Nancy Abbey, Wellesley College's professor of etiquette and deportment, who, one discovers, has not always followed her own staid advice. Noted British actress, Juliet Stevenson, is outstanding in the small role of Amanda Armstrong, the college nurse and closet lesbian, who is still mourning the loss of her companion of many years. Marian Seldes is perfectly cast as President Jocelyn Carr, whose role at the college seems to be that of keeping the well-heeled alumni and trustees of Wellesley College happy with the status quo. Donna Mitchell turns in a stunning performance as Betty's self-absorbed mother, a woman who is a slave to the expected and puts appearances before her daughter's happiness. Julia Roberts is luminous as the role of Katherine Watson, infusing it with an intelligence and natural warmth that radiates off the screen. Though she has a little bit too contemporary an edge, she still manages to carry the day in the role of the
forward thinking professor with the Mona Lisa smile.

All in all, this is a wonderful, highly enjoyable film in which the social mores and style of the nineteen fifties are well depicted.