Rating: 
Summary: a masterpiece...
Review: I was very pleased with how this movie turned out (except the whole Bill situation could have been taken out. it didn't really match her ideals really..). When I saw previews for it, I knew at once I wanted to see it but was afraid Hollywood would ruin it. On the contrary, I was very moved.I was really impressed how they addressed what is expected from all women, but also how all women are DIFFERENT. On one hand, there is Katherine Watson who believes women should not simply get married and have children, that there is "more to life" than motherhood. On the other hand, there is the university and most of its faculty and students who believe the opposite. And then there are the very few (or maybe one) in between who believe in possibilities... Though the character Katherine Watson has a noble agenda to change the rigid motherly ideals of the school, she has simply fled to the opposite extreme with rigid academic ideals. Though this movie takes place in the 1950's, these themes are NOT irrelevent. Take it from a college girl herself (and many of my friends) - many of these expectations and pressures still exist in different forms. Replace Katherine with your high school, your peers, and your parents, and replace the Wellesley of the 1950s with your grandmothers, your aunts, your friends and you have MY life with a seemingly opposite but very similar struggle. Therefore, I give this movie 5 stars. It realistically depicts the struggle that can still be seen in many women's lives today, but does not provide a cop-out answer for the masses. Like the analogy in the film of the paint-by-number sets, women are not cookie cutter shapes! All the actresses in this movie did a wonderful job. Julia Stiles, Julia Roberts, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and more.. I was easily able to relate to these characters, and their development is exceptionally interesting. This film holds much significance to those of us women who have lived it out in one way or another.
Rating: 
Summary: Does daddy approve of this?
Review: Personally, I didn't like this movie, don't know why my, sister wanted the DVD. Don't even know why she showed it to me and nevertheless, I'm not a big fan of Julia Roberts. This movie stinks. No other words. In my opinion it sucked. It might be good to someone else. I don't care. But am I not here to talk about the DVD? Yada yada its a great dvd. WHY? Cause I love special features. Ehh... Not really exciting special features though. yawn... Theres still one good reason to get this dvd. Its got kirsten dunst. The girl from spiderman. And any friend of spiderman is a friend of mine. (her acting sucked in this movie) (i'm not a geek or a comic book freak or a dungeons and dragons or chess player)
Rating:
Summary: Inspirational
Review: Mona Lisa Smile is the best movie for every girl, lady, woman out there.
It teaches women to have strength in themselves and to not rely on a man to provide that strength.
Every young girl and woman should watch this film before graduating from high school.
It's strong, emotional, funny, educating. It's absolutly wonderful!
Rating:
Summary: Stelalr cast lost in soap opera screenplay
Review: As entertainment, "Mona Lisa Smile" has its strong points. After all, it features some of some of today's best actresses - Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Marcia Gay Harden. It has the look of the 1950s, which makes it a handsome period piece. The movie's central problems are its unsuccessful attempts to convey the real feeling of the period and its failure to create any truly memorable characters [the script's fault more than the performers']. While it wants to be seen as a historically accurate portrait of upper-middle class society fifty years ago, it winds being no more than an entertaining soap opera. [For a more astute vision of the period, watch the vastly superior "Far From Heaven" [2002]. For a searing portrait of a teacher in an all girls' school, check out 1969's "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie".] Katherine Watson [Roberts], a recent UC Berkeley graduate, lands a job at Wellesley College, a prestigious East Coast women's college, as an art history teacher. She is impressed by her students' eagerness to learn, but appalled that, despite their academic excellence, their main ambition is to marry well. She begins a fairly benign campaign to get these women to realize that there might be other ambitions in life worth pursing. Her efforts make the college's president and its board of trustees uncomfortable to the point that her job is in danger. The students' responses range from acceptance to outright hostility. The always delightful Roberts is miscast here. She is a joy to watch and gives one of her most mature performances, yet she comes off as an early 21st Century woman sent to the mid-20th Century to show these girls what the future will be like. This interpretation gives her character a certain smugness. The supporting cast is uniformly excellent. Gyllenhaal nearly steals the movies as Giselle, a beautiful Jewish student, the only one who seems destined to be on the forefront of women's lib in years to come.
Rating: 
Summary: Give Me a Break
Review: This movie is the biggest load of BS I've seen in years. The script is incredibly weak and tremendous young actors are wasted. I beleive Julia Roberts thinks that she's this woman but I just couldn't buy into her charater. Also, I just got sick of watching the longing looks of Roberts. It was bad acting. If you want to see a movie that tackles this exact same subject in an intelligent fashion I recommend "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" with Maggie Smith. Ms. Smith won an Academy Award for her performance.
Rating:
Summary: Your SAT question
Review: True or False? Pretty Woman/ Prostitution as Mona Lisa Smile / Teaching at Wellesley in 1950's A star vehicle that says all Wellesley women smoked, even in the pool, while preparing to be good little wives. I hope not.
Rating: 
Summary: Confused and Miserable
Review: Although I did come to the theater open-minded, this movie was simply disappointing. It started out great, but after about 35 minutes, the plot starts to get muddled, and the whole movie gets confused and cluttered.
There is absolutely no character development. I could have gotten to know a schnitzel better than any of the characters here, within the same wasted two hours of my life! The movie starts by assuming that we know Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts) for our entire life!
Subplots are opened and left open freely, and if I just start listing them here, my keyboard will disintegrate.
Acting is mediocre and lacks credibility, except Julia Roberts, who was really good here.
As for the direction, I guess it was OK, but if I were stuck with a lousy script and a $65,000,000 budget, I think I could have done better.
The visuals on the other hand, were amazing. All the paintings were really wonderful; too bad they were used almost only in the first part of the movie, which was great. If they had used some art, which is supposed to be a strong element in this film, on the other parts of the movie, it may have squeezed a C- out of me, but that's it!
Also, the movie lasts much longer than it should. The ending stretches for about 20 minutes, and it was definitely not worth the wait. Overall, this movie really did have potential; but due to the disgraceful torture they have made to this innocent, beautiful story, it was wasted, and left nothing but disappointment and another $8 for the cinema.
Rating:
Summary: Barely scintillating
Review: I recently purchased this DVD as I always dreamed my daughter would one day attend a Seven Sister College. Thank goodness this film is an archaic, stereotypical, and completely MISOGYNISTIC portrayal of the women's colleges that helped the shape of women's lives today. The part I most resent about this movie, aside from the flat dialogue, is the writer's attempt to "de-feminist" the film by showing a smart woman who "chooses" to follow her husband like a dog rather than attend law school. I mean, really. Why not take a look at that girl in 15 years when her snotty nosed brats are crying all day while her husband works 15 hour days, and she is see feels "liberated".
Rating: 
Summary: Is it worth sitting through this with your wife/girlfriend?
Review:
Okay, this is obviously a chick flick. So, if you want to rent the Fast and the Furious, or watch Wrestlemania this ain't yer cup-o-tea! However, if you're the average guy who can sit through a typical drama you'll get through this one fine, and might even like it. It's essentially Dead Poets Society, but with women characters. And despite the way it's billed it's not that serious or dramatic or feminist. Julia Roberts, Julia Stiles and Kirsten Dunst all give good performances. The plot is somewhat predictable, the message obvious. In short, my expectations were low and I was pleasantly surprised. So if your girlfriend or wife insists on renting this, don't despair. There are worse ways to spend an evening (and then next week they'll have to sit through X-Men 2 with you!).
Rating:
Summary: Pleasant, but ulitmately unsatisfying
Review: I was really looking forward to this film.
But for me, I was left unsatisfied.
Let's be honest, this is the kind of film that we expect to reduce us to tears, (Julia normally does this well for me - she's a good 'crier' on screen), and you know at the end you are going to feel good and inspired by the strong characters.
Well...I felt none of those things.
It was enjoyable, and the performances were good (especially Maggie Gyllenhal and (for me) newcomer Ginnifer Goodwin), but the story just DIDN'T have the balls it should have had. Pleasant, but ulitmately unsatisfying...
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