Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
Storyline
The story of Katherine Ann Watson, a feminist teacher who studied at UCLA graduate school and in 1953 left her boyfriend behind in Los Angeles, California to teach at Wellesley College, a conservative women's private liberal arts college in Massachusetts, United States.
Directors
Cast
Dominic West, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Topher Grace, John Slattery, Julia Stiles, Marian Seldes, Julia Roberts, Ginnifer Goodwin, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Marcia Gay Harden, Donna Mitchell, Lily Rabe, Krysten Ritter, Juliet Stevenson, Kirsten Dunst, Jennie Eisenhower, Jordan Bridges, Laura Allen, Terence Rigby, Taylor Roberts, Tori Amos, Annika Marks
Trailer
Reviews
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
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
Maybe Wellesley isn't the only injured party here. Can an audience sue for cruel and edifying punishment?
