Mona Lisa Smile

Rating:
Summary: I Just Don't Understand!
Review: This doesn't have the best rating from the reviewers here on Amazon.com, but I think that it is a wonderful movie. It has a strong story, some very beautiful scenes, a great cast, and an enjoyable soundtrack. Katherine Watson, a bohemian from California, finally attains her dream; to teach at the highest ranked women's college in the country. She soon comes to find that instead of preparing these women for the world, the institution is simply preparing them for marriage. After coming to form extremely close bonds with some of the girls, and a rather rocky existance with others, the whole situation is wrapped up in a life altering experience that changes the way they all view the world. Give this one a try. Hopefully, you'll love it as much as I do.

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Good!
Review: Julia Roberts as Ms. Watson, an art history teacher at an all girls university (Wellesly) in the early 50's, gives a surprisingly good performance backed up by some of the top actresses in movies today! Ms. Watson tries to change her students ideals as to why a woman should go to college. Back then, no matter how well a woman excelled, she was expected to marry and be an ideal housewife. Even though Ms. Watson becomes extremely popular with the students, the school's board doesn't see it that way and tries to impose restrictions on her. Therefore, Ms. Watson can either conform and continue teaching or stick to her beliefs and be out of a job.




Rating:
Summary: Amazing to the last second
Review: The line up was promising; Julia Roberts, Kirstin Dunst, Maggie Gylenhaal and Julia Stiles. This film delivered. It's feministic approach was refreshing to see, and delivered in the form of Julia Roberts character, who incidentally was not a man-hating feminist, showed that the movement was not a way of women attempting to rise up against the oppressive and hateful men that ruled their lives, but a motion towards some kind of respect and equality. Roberts' character dated, loved, and worked hard for all she wanted. She motivated the girls to make a life for themselves that existed beyond the boundries of masculine expectation, so they would not regret letting the oppertunities pass them by.
Kirstin Dunst impressed me immensley in this film. I remember her saying in an interview a while ago, she'd like her acting to be taken more seriously and that she's sick of being the love interest or the girl next door... well, to me, all you need to do is look at her in Mona Lisa Smile and you can clearly see that this girl is headed for something major. She was spectacular, and the part suited her to a T. I wouldn't really have picked her out before watching this film, but if I see her in a serious role again, it will compell me to watch it.
Similarly, Maggie stood out as more than Jake's sister. She was, perhaps, the second most outstanding actress in the movie, besides Kirstin.
This film opened my eyes. In a way, it also showed me that you can't change people who've held beliefs in their minds for their entire lives to a, perhaps, more positive opinion, unless you're prepared to really fight. Or maybe the film shows that people should give advice, but allow others to make their own unaided decissions? Either way, it's a film worth watching, and I loved every minute.


Rating:
Summary: Entertaining,but lacks originality.
Review: "I thought I was headed to a place that would turn out tomorrow's leaders, not their wives."

It would be easy to say "here we go again" with this film, because Mona Lisa Smile follows much of a plot we have all seen many times before. It is yet another take on the "good-hearted yet radical and initially misunderstood teacher making a difference to the lives of troubled students while battling the stiff-upper lips of the conservative school establishment" story. Heard it all before haven't you? It's The Emperor's Club at a pinch and Dead Poets Society without a doubt, but with one major difference. This time it's girls in the main roles of teacher and students. A sort of "Dead Poets for chicks" if you like. It's even set in the 1950s New England area of America in an ultra-conservative and extremely well-to-do college, so the parallels with the Peter Weir classic of 1989 are uncanny. A pretty decent ensemble cast has been gathered for this film with the likes of Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Marcia Gay Harden all playing major roles, while directing duties are handled by Mike Newell, the bloke responsible for Four Weddings and a Funeral and Donnie Brasco among others.

Julia Roberts stars as Katherine Watson. She has just arrived at the elitist Wellesley College in Massachusetts to teach art history to the bevy of wealthy young ladies who attend the college. Katherine is in her early 30s, is single, and hails from California. She carries with her a slightly new-age way of looking at things. This is probably the most implausible aspect of the film since her character seems more like a late 60s model of woman rather than the 1953 version. Anyway, she lands at the famous college for young ladies to teach the history of art, and from day one realises she is in for more than she initially expected.

The girls enrolled in her first class are all completely versed in practically everything she tries to teach them in the first lesson. It seems they have learnt their textbooks by rote and are simply looking for an easy pass in this most boring of subjects. It doesn't take long before Katherine realises with some angst that most of the girls attending the college are merely biding their time before they get married to some eligible young beau, most probably from neighbouring Harvard University. Wellesley is merely a finishing school disguised as a college, she laments. This theory is reinforced when she learns there are even lessons for the girls on such subjects as grooming and deportment, manners, and incredibly, how to stage a dinner party properly. But Katherine wants to fight these archaic traditions and so tries to open the girls' minds to some alternative ways of looking at things (such as modern art), and also raises the possibility of them pursuing other things after they leave the college - such as going to law school. It is this latter point that she presses home with the incredibly bright Joan (Julia Stiles), who is intelligent enough to pursue a law career, but has not looked past the fact that she will hopefully be married and caring for her new husband when she leaves college. At the same time Katherine manages to exact the venom of another student and editor of the school newspaper, Betty Warren (Kirsten Dunst). Betty is about to be married and cannot possibly imagine why Miss Watson would be campaigning for her students to be thinking of anything other than a home, a husband and a family. Her vitriolic attacks in the paper attract the attention of the faculty, and worse, the alumni, which includes Betty's mother and seems all-powerful at making staffing decisions for the school. Katherine is also feeling the wrath of the faculty when she starts to become romantically involved with the Italian professor, Bill Dunbar (Dominic West) which is just one of a fair handful of romantic liaisons that form the basis of this story. Can Katherine make the girls see the error of their way and convince them to see past a life tied to the kitchen and vacuum cleaner? And can she do this before she gets the boot from the conservative and staid school establishment? Well you'll just have to watch to find out.

There isn't much original about this story at all - we've seen it all before and truth be told in a much better way. I remember walking out of the cinema after seeing this and wondering just how do scriptwriters get away with lifting so much material and inspiration from another film. It is really quite obvious that Dead Poets Society has formed the core of this script idea, but for some reason all the really good bits of that film, the pure agony of being a teenager and living with parental expectations - the emotional centre if you like - has been removed. What we are left with is a rather pedestrian, by-the-numbers film that will entertain, but will hardly make anyone think too hard.