Mona Lisa Smile *** (2003, Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ginnifer Goodwin) – Classic Movie Review 2329

Director Mike Newell’s 2003 drama stars Julia Roberts, who flashes her big smile as Katherine Ann Watson, a free-spirited art professor at a posh, conservative Fifties American school, Wellesley College.

As a free-thinking teacher, she is frustrated that the students largely seem to be biding their time, just waiting to find the right man to marry. As her well-heeled girls are bright, she feels they are not reaching their potential. So she sets about teaching them about life, love and modern art, inspiring them all to brilliance and a tentative feminism.

This girly version of Dead Poets Society is an appealing, thoughtful film, even if it’s a bit demure, naïve and humourless and has an ending that’s a predictable letdown. But it’s a smart-looking movie and Roberts again proves a class act, doing nicely by the intelligent material.

The very good young cast of Julia Stiles (the school smarty-pants), Kirsten Dunst (class witch), Maggie Gyllenhaal (nympho) and Ginnifer Goodwin (ugly duckling) flesh out their caricatures most stylishly and largely overcome the well-meaning clichés in Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal‘s screenplay.

It may not get top marks but it can be marked as a good effort.

Also in the top cast are Dominic West, Juliet Stevenson, John Slattery, Topher Grace, Marian Seldes, Terence Rigby, Donna Mitchell, Jordan Bridges, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Tori Amos and Taylor Roberts.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2329

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