Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
Runtime: 2 hrs 5 mins
Theatrical Release: Dec 19, 2003 Wide
Box Office: $63,695,760
Synopsis: 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... 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 splendor of this enjoyable film. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Julia Roberts, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Marcia Gay Harden
Screenwriter: Mark Rosenthal, Lawrence Konner
Producer: Elaine Goldsmith, Deborah Schindler, Paul Schiff
Composer: Rachel Portman
DVD Info
Release:
Mar 9, 2004
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Keep Case
- Widescreen
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
- Dolby Digital 2.0 - French
Additional Release Material:
- Trailer
- Art Forum
- College Then and Now
- What Women Wanted: 1953
- Music Video - 1. Elton John "The Heart of Every Girl"
Text/Photo Galleries:
- Filmographies
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
Period dress, set design, manners and acting are fine--as is Mike Newell's direction. If only the script was less predictable.
...would have been better served by characters with a little less formula than the paint-by-numbers projects so loved by these women of Wellesley College.
Mike Newell directs a formulaic Roberts vehicle that isn’t without its charm.
Mike Newell takes the road most travelled in tackling the sexual apartheid and hysteria of the 1950s.
Smiles turn to frowns when you sense a paint-by-numbers feminist formula taking control.
É um pouco difícil levá-lo a sério, já que sua postura de 'filme-denúncia' soa, no mínimo, anacrônica.
Considered less as a piece of entertainment and more as an argument constructed to further a feminist agenda, the film is hugely impressive.
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