Mona Lisa Smile (2003) Movie Review, Trailer and Poster

U.S. 2003
Director: Mike Newell
Cast: Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Marcia Gay Harden
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: December 19th 2003
Running Time: 1 hour 56 minutes

The Movie Review

Movie and art. Sometimes those two things are inseparable. There are some movies that executed artistically and there are even some movies concerning arts. Finally there is a movie about art but taken to the extreme level that it feels as if you're not watching a movie, it feels as if you were attending an arts lecture, meet Mona Lisa Smile.

Julia Roberts is Katherine Watson, the warrior princess of the Amazon that carries a sword and a shield...nope just kidding. In 1953, Katherine Watson is a teacher with a very modern and unconventional mind that comes to teach at Wellesley College, an orthodox women's private arts college in America. She teaches at a class where the


MONA LISA SMILE
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students are unbelievably diligent and smart, including Connie (Goodwin), Joan (Stiles), the mild-mannered Giselle (Maggie Gyllenhaal), the meddlesome Betty (Kirsten Dunst). Despite of their intelligence, in that time women are expected to only become a good housewives, which Katherine disapproves and sees a better option for those talented young girls.

Problems start to arise when the President of Wellesley finds out Katherine's unorthodox teaching methods and with Betty who always meddles with people's business and thinks of Katherine as her own personal enemy. Will Katherine survive and able to change the conventional paradigm of the school.

Mona Lisa Smile, whew..., I surely didn't smile after watching it... I frown in disbelief of how much minutes I've wasted...

Sure even Mona Lisa Smile does have its moments, the heated back-talk from Kirsten Dunst to Julia Roberts on a class and the ending scene (which took you 1 hour and fifty minutes or so of boredom before you finally see it). This film still watchable enough (highly arguably) thanks to the performance of all the great cast including Aleksa Palladino though even she only shows up for a brief moment but acts remarkably well. Julia Roberts is undeniably a great actress that has liven up her character very well, but why would she role in this movie anyway?

Speaking of the acting and the cast, then once again yes, they're good, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ginnifer Goodwin, Kirsten Dunst and Julia Stiles, they're all good. But Without an interesting story, only die-hard fans of those beautiful actresses would appreciate this movie entirely.

Mona Lisa Smile is a movie that will arguably only appeal to the arts students since for general moviegoers this movie is completely boring, unsatisfying, serves only as a lecture of arts and devoid of any uplifting musical score or soundtrack. With a big budget as high as more than 60 million dollars...what was all the money for?

I did stifle so many yawns watching this movie for just trying to stay awake and fight the boredom. If you are going to the theater to see some entertainment instead of education, then this film is certainly not what you're looking for. Mona Lisa Smile, if you are able to stand to watch this movie till the end, then kudos for you...

© iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com