Roberts's performance is wrong for the period ... and she can't overcome a script that hands Katherine improbably easy victories and sugar-coated defeats that aren't really defeats at all.
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12/19/03
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Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
35
%
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Reviews Counted:146
Fresh:51
Rotten:95
Average Rating:4.9/10
Consensus: Though Mona Lisa Smile espouses the value of breaking barriers, the movie itself is predictable and safe.
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... [More]
Starring: Julia Roberts, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles
Director: Mike Newell
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Reviews for Mona Lisa Smile
[Roberts] is an anachronistic pop-feminist on a mission.
12/19/03
Top CriticIsn't a subtle movie, but it does allow for surprising shades of meaning: The teacher is not always right, for instance, and sometimes it's her students who teach her.
12/19/03
A movie in which all problems have the complexity of a pleated skirt and can be solved with a heartfelt hug, and all characters fit dull and predictable molds.
12/19/03
There seems to be an odd idealization, or trivialization, of the characters that makes the movie ultimately unsatisfying.
12/19/03
It's hard to believe Katherine could become a beloved teacher or inspire her students, and in the case of Mona Lisa Smile that's the same as saying it's hard to believe the movie.
12/19/03
Top CriticJulia Roberts has no Mona Lisa smile -- enigmatic coyness isn't in her range -- but her big, horsey grin flashes its horse sense and beaming charm through much of Mona Lisa Smile, and viewers can smile in return.
12/19/03
May not be the personably 'serious' movie it sees itself as -- and it may miss its mark by aiming too intently at its target -- but it still manages to work on other, more simplistic levels that are nevertheless valid.
12/19/03
[Roberts] does what she can with the material, but is ultimately done in by the surprising lack of imagination and emotional depth in Newell's film.
12/19/03
An attack on mid-century 'conformity' that is locked into its own grindingly rigid set of movie conventions.
12/19/03
A sight better than the Dead Poets Society in Drag you may have expected.
12/19/03
When was the last time you saw a mainstream movie with big, flashy stars that featured a fairly sophisticated discussion of the nature of art?
12/19/03
While Roberts is capable and charming, and the film is handsome and earnest, the real thrill is watching the three younger stars develop their screen personalities.
12/19/03
Mona Lisa Smile's lesson of the day is delivered in an unoriginal manner through such shallow and unlikable characters that its message lacks an emotional punch.
12/19/03
The movie is only interesting intermittently, and the period details don't feel right.
12/19/03
Top CriticSanctimonious, relentlessly predictable and willfully ignorant of the period it's set in.
12/19/03
Top CriticThis is not a feminist movie. It even feels at times like a step back, partly because the cliches are so tired.
12/19/03
Top CriticA bloodless and wan offering.
12/19/03
There are a few reasons to enjoy the film, namely its likable cast, its noble aim -- of dramatizing one of the many small steps that led to the overhaul of women's higher education -- and its unexpected ability to surprise you.
12/19/03
The material is so addled that it drags down everyone and everything.
12/19/03
Latest News for Mona Lisa Smile
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