Mona Lisa Smile

4.00
    Mona Lisa Smile
    2003

    Synopsis

    Katherine Watson is a recent UCLA graduate hired to teach art history at the prestigious all-female Wellesley College, in 1953. Determined to confront the outdated mores of society and the institution that embraces them, Katherine inspires her traditional students, including Betty and Joan, to challenge the lives they are expected to lead.

    Your Movie Library

    Cast

    • Julia RobertsKatherine Ann Watson
    • Kirsten DunstBetty Warren
    • Julia StilesJoan Brandwyn
    • Maggie GyllenhaalGiselle Levy
    • Ginnifer GoodwinConnie Baker
    • Dominic WestBill Dunbar
    • Juliet StevensonAmanda Armstrong
    • Marcia Gay HardenNancy Abbey
    • John SlatteryPaul Moore
    • Marian SeldesPresident Jocelyn Carr

    Recommendations

    • 60

      The New Yorker

      The fight against traditionalism has long been won, so the movie’s indignation feels superfluous, but Mike Newell’s direction is solid, the period décor and costumes are a sombre riot of chintz and pleated skirts, and the movie has an air of measured craft and intelligence. [22 & 29 December 2003, p. 166]
    • 50

      The Hollywood Reporter

      Rote characterizations and a trite, even condescending, attitude toward that era's misguided mores robs the film of the satiric punch Todd Haynes delivered in "Far From Heaven."
    • 50

      ReelViews

      The most likely facial expression to be elicited by Mona Lisa Smile is a grimace.
    • 50

      Dallas Observer

      You will leave Mona Lisa Smile with only the slightest hint of the grin every slick studio movie gives you--the grin of reassurance and superiority. But you will not be changed, only out about eight bucks.
    • 40

      Time

      Maybe Wellesley isn't the only injured party here. Can an audience sue for cruel and edifying punishment?
    • 40

      Variety

      An appealing female cast gives the hollowly formulaic Mona Lisa Smile more dignity than it perhaps deserves, yet it's Julia Roberts in an ill-suited starring role that represents one of the film's chief shortcomings.
    • 40

      New York Magazine (Vulture)

      Director Mike Newell and screenwriters Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal should have uncorseted their own imaginations. The girls on display are all tightly stereotyped.
    • 40

      Newsweek

      Newell, no hack, tries not to milk the cliches shamelessly, and that may be the movie's final undoing. Lacking the courage of its own vulgarity, Mona Lisa Smile is as tepid as old bathwater.

    Loved by

    • nadia
    • Marion1152
    • leyla
    • brunabklein
    • cimet

    Seen by