Playing Mona Lisa

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and Spontaneous
Review: "Playing Mona Lisa" is the story of a talented musician whose family is completly wacked out and whose personal life is even more so. Alicia Witt, who actually plays the piano pieces on and off-screen, plays the character tremendously. What a talented young woman! The rest of the cast, including Ivan Sergei, Brooke Langton, Johnny Galecki, Elliot Gould, and Marlo Thomas, add a wonderful humorous touch, each fitting his or her part flawlessly. One of my favorite characters from Seinfeld is present; George's mother, playing her typical hilarious obnoxious self. Perfect!

I have read a few critics' reviews of this movie, and I think that some are a bit too harsh. This is not an Oscar-worthy movie, so why treat it as one? Sit back and have fun, laugh at the ridiculous antics and play along with the at-times-unplausible yet intriguing story line. Bravo to the cast and crew for creating an uplifting, airy tale of life, love, music, and growing up.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and Spontaneous
Review: "Playing Mona Lisa" is the story of a talented musician whose family is completly wacked out and whose personal life is even more so. Alicia Witt, who actually plays the piano pieces on and off-screen, plays the character tremendously. What a talented young woman! The rest of the cast, including Ivan Sergei, Brooke Langton, Johnny Galecki, Elliot Gould, and Marlo Thomas, add a wonderful humorous touch, each fitting his or her part flawlessly. One of my favorite characters from Seinfeld is present; George's mother, playing her typical hilarious obnoxious self. Perfect!

I have read a few critics' reviews of this movie, and I think that some are a bit too harsh. This is not an Oscar-worthy movie, so why treat it as one? Sit back and have fun, laugh at the ridiculous antics and play along with the at-times-unplausible yet intriguing story line. Bravo to the cast and crew for creating an uplifting, airy tale of life, love, music, and growing up.

Rating:
Summary: Lame, excruciating indie comedy with no laughs
Review: Despite the presence of many "name" actors (Marlo Thomas, Elliot Gould, Harvey Fierstein, etc.) this is an embarasssing lame independent film that feels like a student project rather than a professional film. Apparently aiming to be a slice of life comedy, it falls very flat as most of the jokes are dated and extremely unfunny. The tone is very uneven and the setting -- contemporary San Francisco -- is poorly utilized.

"Playing Mona Lisa" is about a recent music conservatory grad, Claire Goldstein (Alicia Witt) is dumped by her boyfriend and goes into a tailspin of depression and bad luck. She's surrounded by "crazy" friends and family, including Harvey Fierstein as her gay piano teacher and parents Marlo Thomas and Elliot Gould. I can't give away any spoilers here because there aren't any -- nothing happens in the course of the film and none of Claire's problems or issues are resolved or even dealt with.

This is the kind of film that is written by someone who is either WAY out of touch with young people today -- someone well over 50 -- or someone from a foreign culture who has no idea how Americans live or act in the 90s. Claire -- a 21 year old college student -- apparently owns her own ROW HOUSE in SAN FRANCISCO...this would be virtually impossible unless her family were multi-millionaires as San Francisco is one of the most expensive housing markets in the US and Claire does not even have a job. Or maybe I have something with the multi-millionaire thing, because her parents live in a huge Victorian mansion on the banks of the San Francisco bay with views of the Golden Gate Bridge (approx. value: $10 million plus).

If it's the filmmakers intent to show the life of a super wealthy princess, that's one thing. But this is supposed to be a story about a down-to-earth, regular girl with normal life problems and a goofy (but normal) family. What wacky planet does the director/screenwriter come from that she does not realize that virtually nobody lives this way? There isn't much of anywhere to go from a premise this completely detached from normality...humor derives from exaggerated real life situations we all can recognize, if you start with an absurd, unworldy premise then there isn't much of any place to go to.

There is plenty to laugh at and find humor in amongst young people in the late 20th century...if you had ever MET any of them. None of the 22 yr olds in "Playing Mona Lisa" have body piercings, tattoos, JOBS, college loans, computers or anything else that I associate with young people that age. In fact the whole tone of the movie seems to come from the early or mid-70s. There are a lot of marijuana and drug references, trying to be cool in a desperate way, and an excruciating scene where Claire's stuffy middle class parents "accidentally" get high....as if the parents of 20-something kids would not themselves have grown up in the era of Woodstock and pot and rock music!!!!

This film has nothing whatever to say about contemporary young women, or the choices/problems that they face in life. It doesn't even have anything to say about the struggle that a classical music student would face in transitioning from music conservatory to professional career in one of the most ruthless and competitive fields of music.

The only remotely interesting thing to comment on here is that Alicia Witt -- who has no gift for comedy or dialogue and utterly fails to carry the film or charm us -- appears to actually be playing her own piano pieces. This is refreshing compared to the many other lame films out there where a talentless actor "fakes" playing. However, if she was selected for the role because of this talent, it was still a mistake. It takes some charisma and personality to head a film, and Ms. Witt is a blank slate.

This is a film to be avoided, even as a rental. Complete waste of your time. BTW: there is some flaw on the DVD that puts captions on the screen at all times, even if you select "no captions".

Rating:
Summary: This is one of my favorite all time movies!
Review: I saw this movie on the Independent Film Channel on Direct TV just a few weeks ago and I must tell you that it is exellently writen and produced! It's a funny, emotionally moving film. It doesn't move too slow, had a wonderful cast and the cinematography/lighting/sound track perfectly fit the scenes and moods that the director wanted. I was totally impressed. I'm ordering 3 copies so I can give them to my closest friends. The story really speaks to women who have been in relationships that didn't work out or that had some rocky patches, and reminds us of the independance and self reliance that we each have within ourselves. It's really motivating!

Rating:
Summary: Not just a regular chick flick
Review: My girlfriend rented ths movie. We both had never seen it, ut when I found out Alicia Witt was in it I said sure Rent It. Well the movie actually isnt to bad. It is pretty amusing and Alicia Witt has such a presence it can cause multiple viewings. anway the DVD isnt that great but the movie is Good!

Rating:
Summary: save your time
Review: Please....read the reviews here and thought seeing it was worth a shot. If you like lame dialogue, self-absorbed characters and unamusing dreg, this movie is for you. I much prefer the Alicia Witt of The Sopranos. Oh yes, and I could not cut out the subtitles from the screen.

Rating:
Summary: Amusing Movie, Crappy DVD
Review: This is the kind of DVD that makes me quite sad. Basically, the only advantage you have over the VHS version is that it is widescreen. Other than that, it really doesn't have any features, so the price seems a bit high.

The movie itself, however, is pretty amusing. Claire Goldstein(Alicia Witt) is a recent graduate in the field of fine arts -piano playing to be exact (which is appropriate since Witt plays the piano quite well in real life). When her boyfriend proposes to her, she is on the top of the world... and then falls all the way down when it turns out he was drunk and forgets all about it. Will her family and friends be able to bring her back up?

Some of the relatively minor characters are great, such as Estelle Harris, aka Estelle Costanza as Aunt Velva, and Elliot Gould and Marlo Thomas as Claire's parents. Overall, I'd say that this movie is more of a rental fare, unless your sure you'll watch it 8 or 9 times, given that there is no extended content on the disc.