A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

The Evaluation System Reviews by Title Reviews by Date

Reviews from Video Reviews of the Classics Personal Background

Title: Mona Lisa Smile

Date Viewed: 1/3/04

Details:

Julia Roberts

Kirsten Dunst

Julia Stiles

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Ginnifer Goodwin

Marcia Gay Harden

Director: Mike Newell

Score: 1/2

The Review: Wellesley, 1953 -- a new art history professor is about to start teaching at one of the most conservative schools in the US, and butt heads with both students and administration.

The back story and the rationale for Roberts to be teaching at Wellesley are minimally explicated. The focus (justifiably) is on the students, mostly final-year seniors, and it simplifies things considerably by creating and emphasizing four archetypes -- respectively: bitch (Dunst), slut (Gyllenhaal), eager student (Stiles), and Earth mother (Goodwin). Embedding these types in a repressive society and an even more constraining set of social mores fostered by this bastion of American womenhood, is an interesting narrative hook.

This is a period piece that should touch the memory of a large chunk of its audience. It was enlightening (and more than a bit disturbing) to gradually understand how regressive the state of Massachusetts was in the 1950's: remember Bill Baird?, and the fact that contraceptives were illegal?

(11-Jan-04)

Back to the chronological list of reviews