Mona Lisa Smile

Plot synopsis:
In 1953, Katherine Ann Watson (Julia Roberts), a 30-year-old graduate student in the department of Art History at UCLA, takes a position teaching "History of Art" at Wellesley College, a conservative women's private liberal arts college in Massachusetts, because she wants to make a difference and influence the next generation of women. At her first class, Katherine discovers that her students have already memorized the entire textbook and syllabus, so she uses the classes to introduce them to Modern Art and encourages discussion about topics such as what makes good art. Katherine comes to know her students and seeks to inspire them to achieve more than marriage to eligible young men.
Betty Warren (Kirsten Dunst) is highly opinionated and outspokenly conservative like her mother, the head of the Alumnae Association. Betty doesn't understand why Katherine is not married and insists that there is a universal standard for good art. She writes editorials for the college paper, exposing campus nurse Amanda Armstrong (Juliet Stevenson) as a supplier of contraception, which results in Amanda being fired; another editorial attacks Katherine for advocating that women should seek a career instead of being wives and mothers as intended. Betty can't wait to marry Spencer (Jordan Bridges) as their parents have arranged and expects the traditional exemptions from attending class as a married woman: Katherine insists she will be marked on merit and attendance, resulting in more conflict.
Connie Baker (Ginnifer Goodwin) begins dating Betty's cousin, Charlie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) but Betty persuades her that he is only using her as his parents have arranged for him to marry Deb MacIntyre. After a disastrous date, where Charlie and Connie very nearly cross paths with Deb's parents on a weekend away at the shore, Connie ends the relationship, believing Betty's story to be true. However, some weeks later, Connie and Charlie reconnect, with Charlie saying he has already decided for himself that he is not going to marry Deb, so he and Connie get back together.
Joan Brandwyn (Julia Stiles) dreams of being a lawyer and has enrolled as pre-law, so Katherine encourages her to apply to Yale Law School, where she is accepted; Katherine is affronted when Joan's fiancé Tommy (Topher Grace) comments Joan "will always have that", intimating his own expectations of what his wife should be. Joan eventually elopes with Tommy, and professes to Katherine she is very happy—she had decided that what she wants most is to be a wife and mother after graduation and asks Katherine to respect her choice.
Giselle Levy (Maggie Gyllenhaal) has liberal views and supports Katherine because she sees her as having chosen what she wants in her life and because she has often felt out of place at the school being Jewish among the mostly WASP student body. Giselle's parents divorced after the war and her father abandoned her family for a new family. Giselle also brazenly has affairs with a professor and a married man.
During "truth or consequences" in a secret society meeting, Katherine confides to the girls that she was engaged when she was younger, but that she and her fiancé were prevented from marrying by the war and their relationship fizzled out. Katherine declines a proposal from her California boyfriend (John Slattery) because she doesn't love him enough and begins seeing the Wellesley Italian professor, Bill Dunbar (Dominic West). Bill is charming and full of stories about Europe and his heroic actions in Italy during the war. He has also had affairs with students (including Giselle), and Katherine makes him promise that it will never happen again. The relationship progresses but when Katherine learns that Bill spent the entire war at the Army Languages Center on Long Island, she decides to break up with him because he is not trustworthy. Bill responds that Katherine didn't come to Wellesley to help the students find their way, but to help them find her way.
Within six months of the wedding Betty's marriage falls apart as Spencer has an affair, hiding it from his wife by pretending to be away on business. Betty seeks refuge at her parents' house but her mother turns her away, telling her that her home is with Spencer now. Betty lashes out at Giselle in rage and pain and then breaks down in tears while Giselle hugs her. Mrs Warren begs Betty to stay married to Spencer, saying that she should try for a year and that she must avoid a scandal. Betty shows her mother a picture of the Mona Lisa and asks if her smile means she is happy. She answers her own question: "Who cares, as long as she's smiling?" and warns her mother that not everything is what it seems. At graduation, Betty begins to ask Katherine about apartments in Greenwich Village, New York, but their conversation is interrupted by Mrs. Warren. Betty tells her mother that she filed for divorce that same morning and she is going to room with Giselle. She tells Katherine that she is considering applying to Yale Law School.
Katherine's course is highly popular, so the college invites her to return but with certain conditions: she must follow the syllabus, submit lesson plans for approval, keep a strictly professional relationship with all faculty members, and not talk to the girls about anything other than classes. Katherine decides to leave in order to explore Europe. In the final scene, Betty dedicates her last editorial to Katherine, claiming that her teacher is "an extraordinary woman who lived by example and compelled us all to see the world through new eyes." As Katherine's taxi speeds up, all her students follow on their bicycles and Betty is seen struggling to keep up with the taxi as a last effort to thank Katherine for changing her life.

Tags: romantic, storytelling, sentimental

Review:
In 1953, free spirited and non-orthodox art history teacher Katherine Ann Watson (Julia Roberts) accepts the challenge of teaching in the conservative Wellesley College.
On the first day, her class fails under the leadership of the arrogant Betty Warren (Kirsten Dunst) and her friends Joan Brandwyn (Julia Stiles) and Giselle Levy (Maggie Gyllenhaal), but Katherine is advised by her mates and the Italian teacher Bill Dunbar (Dominic West) to not fear the students.
Soon Katherine learns that the girls are only waiting to catch Mr. Nice Guy and get married and she fights against the status- quo of Wellesley and to keep her independence."Mona Lisa Smile" is an entertaining movie about a woman living ahead of time in a conservative environment.
But "Mona Lisa Smile" pleasantly surprised me, especially the uncompromising, principled ending.Another thing that pleased me was the film's assumption of an intelligent, educated audience that does not require any dumbing-down of art and culture.
Again, "Mona Lisa Smile" credits us with brains rather than insulting our intelligence.Mercifully, the title of the film is not simply a reference to Julia Roberts' famous beestung, collagen-enhanced lips.
As Kirsten Dunst's character explains toward the end of the movie, Mona Lisa's smile is not necessarily an indication that she is happy and content -- any more than the women of the 1950s with their dream homes and seemingly perfect lives.
I liked Julia Roberts less in her earlier movies, I like her more now that she is playing older and flawed characters, like the new professor of Art History in 1953 Wellesley College in "Mona Lisa Smile." And the title does not refer to her, instead it is embedded in remarks in the screenplay about the actual painting of The Mona Lisa.
Mona Lisa Smile (2003)I had no idea the theme of this movie but I teach art history and the main opening scene is a true nightmare for an art history teacher--the precocious students knew everything before the teacher said anything, and then they sweetly got up and went to study hall because, of course, they might actually learn something there.This is 1953 at a rich private and elite college for girls (a real one--it's called Wellesley).
The movie is filled with these conflicts of what we think of as normal modern art (an overdone scene with Jackson Pollack is one example) and with the proper world these women are really supposed to inhabit.And it's true, lots of women were encouraged to be housewives even at good colleges.
Even Roberts, who is supposed to be discovering her mixed up feelings about art and life on the east coast, is thinly drawn and barely fleshed out.Of course, movies succeed on some level with stereotypes and this one does, too, so by the end we love all the feel good happiness even as we know it's ludicrous and manipulative.
A forward thinking art professor( Julia Roberts) secures a teaching position at a very conservative all girls college in New England.
Short of movies made in the period, it would be hard to find a film that better represents the role of (even upscale) American women in the 1950s.Julia Roberts' performance was excellent, as was that of several of her students.
The movie narrates as an idealist and free spirit(Julia Roberts)teacher graduated in Ucla University who's contracted in an high class prep school ,a college for girls only(Kirsten Dunst,Julia Stiles,Maggie Gyellenhaal) and with a repressive education of the time.The professor tries to redeem them and learn upon the intellectual freedom.Meanwhile she falls in love with an attractive teacher(Dominic West) and gets acquainted with others troublesome professors(Marcia Gay Harden,Juliet Stevenson).The story is narrated with intelligence and sensibility and are treated morals and ethics issues developed with great sense of ductility and fairness .The professor will must to take on the truth and numerous difficulties ,facing repressed customs and confronting with the director college as extreme defending the traditional habits.
In that respect, it fits this movie perfectly.The movie is nominally about the new teacher at the all-girls Wellesley College in 1953 and how she tries to get the students there to think for themselves instead of following the path their elders have set for them, but director Mike Newell (who it's impossible to believe once did movies like "Dance With A Stranger") and writers Laurence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, taking time out from weak remakes (they also did the Tim Burton "Planet of the Apes") and sequels (they also did "Superman IV: The Quest For Peace" and "The Jewel Of The Nile") to do an all-new movie, turn it into a nicely-shot, decently-acted two-hour soap opera.
I admit I didn't hate it the way some other males commenting on it seem to - it's passably amusing and I can see the points it's trying to make - but ultimately it just doesn't come off.Part of the problem is the casting; Julia Roberts is never believable for a second as the art teacher, and she spends the movie being acted off the screen by her students (when they show off more textbook knowledge than she does in their first class, the impression that they should be teaching her never leaves) and fellow teachers.
Kirsten Dunst (as a prissy writer on the college newspaper who stands for The Way Things Are) and Julia Stiles (as an art student with a desire to be a lawyer) seem to have been cast in each other's roles by mistake; Stiles in particular sounds as if she's playing at being grown-up throughout, although both she and Dunst give it their best shot for the most part (KD's big emotional scene near the end is dreadful).
pleasantly plump girl (you can't really call her fat), Maggie Gyllenhaal as a sexy free spirit, Marcia Gay Harden as a fellow teacher obsessed with TV and an all-too-briefly seen Juliet Stevenson as a nurse are all much better value.)But what really hurts "Mona Lisa Smile" isn't the acting, or the music (though it's no fun hearing Barbra Streisand vocally showing off over the credits), but the writing.
Top that with some beautiful photography, a nice gripping story and some convincing performances and you've got a great film.The focus of the film is primarily on the somewhat radical character of Dr Watson (played with finesse by Julia Roberts)and how she deals with the conservative environs of Wellesley College.
"Mona Lisa Smile" is all about Roberts as a 1950's art professor at a prim and proper girl's college who struggles to breathe women's lib and independent thinking into a classroom full of snobbish boomer brats who want little more than an "Ozzie & Harriet" future.
The Julia Roberts character seems to be a very confused woman, who wants to show how smart she is without offering any concrete prove of this fact (breaking an engagement without a good reason, flirting with a colleague she does not even like much, basically acting as any other scatter-brained female creature without any education) and as far as her profession is concerned, her radical views on art are very conventional (not a single word about Expressionism, Cubism, Dadaism and other European art movements of the beginning of the century, but of course she mentions Pollock, because he's also American ...).
The only difference between this movie and many others about a teacher who changes the students lives supposedly for the better is that it occurs at an all-girls school(can you say `Dead Poets Soceity' for women).
The stories of the students is much more interesting but not enough screen time is given for this and what we end up getting is a very surfacy film about life and love in the early 50's for young girls.
But while Dead Poets Society has a good story, great acting and Robin Williams, Mona Lisa Smile is a low tempo whining pointless flow of celluloid starring probably the most overrated actress in Hollywood: Julia Roberts.
Mona Lisa Smile, which was released last month by Columbia Pictures and Revolution Studios, depicts an arch-traditional Wellesley shaken up by a free-spirited art-history professor from California (played by Julia Roberts) who encourages students to reject conformity in any form and pursue careers rather than settle down as housewives.
The movie begins with Katherine Ann Watson (Julia Roberts), young Art History Instructor, who arrives at Wellesley College (for young ladies) for the new Academic Year of 1953/1954.
Through this movie, we lightly follow the stories of Betty Warren (Kirsten Dunst), Joan Brandwyn (Julia Stiles), Gisele Levy (Maggie Gillenhaal) and Connie Baker (Ginnifer Goodwin).
At Wellesley, these young women are learning how to become good housewives, and as so, how to give up on their dreams (if they have ones except to get married and raise children).When Katherine arrives, she is seeking for open minded women, who through Art History should be able to start thinking by themselves outside the conventional way.
It is a bit simple, but you have the picture I guess.This movie opens a lot of interesting discussions, you just have to be open minded to see beyond it ...I really like Mona Lisa Smile in its simplicity and this is the reason why I will see it many other times..
Marketing, casting directors, and studio big bucks have made a cretin public think this woman can act, much less, earn an Oscar, but Mona Lisa Smile should be the wakeup call for the Academy to ask Ms. Roberts to return her statuette.
Academy Award-Winer Julia Roberts (Best Actress in a leading role, Erin Brockovich, 2000) leads an all-star cast featuring an all star cast MONA LISA SMILE is a funny, inspiring and uplifting film about an Art history professor with a lot to teach about life and much to learn about love Katherine Watson (Roberts), a recent graduate is hired to teach art history at the prestigious all-female Wellesley Collage in 1953.
Determined to confront the outdated values of society and the institution that embraces them, Katherine inspires her traditional minded students to challenge the lives they are expected to lead...but it didn't work out until they loved her and then things take it's own unexpected turn 10/10 5 STAR FILM.
The 2003 film Mona Lisa Smile by Mike Newell introduced an art teacher refusing to play by the rules rocks the world of her 1950's conservative female students.
Julia Roberts stars alongside Kirsten Dunst and Julia Stiles in a kind of coming of age story that's as transformative for the students as it is for their teacher.Katherine Ann Watson (Julia Roberts) has always wanted to teach at the prestigious Wellesley College.
Directed by Mike Newell, this movie features Julia Roberts as the protagonist and Kirsten Dunst in the role of a conservative student, who will lead the opposition to the modern ideas concerning women.This film could be just another film about the private schools of American rich kids if it were three important factors that make the difference: the first is the good performance of Julia Roberts, even better than in other more acclaimed films; the second is the song "The Heart of Every Girl" composed by Sir Elton John purposely for the film and winner of a Golden Globe; the third is the screenplay, very well written and directed, focusing not only in the change of mind of the students but also in the drastic change of the role of women during the twentieth century.Despite the positive notes, this movie has two serious defects.
The only drawback in this movie is that at times the story begins to become contrived as some of the student-parent conflicts become a bit overblown and the ensuing crises somewhat difficult to believe, but all in all this is good movie which showcases the talents of one of Hollywood's great actresses, Julia Roberts..
The acting is fairly poor, especially on Julia Robert's part, she is the same character as in countless other Julia movies, and Julia Stiles disappointed me in comparison to her other performances, which are usually quite good.
Wherever women and men have battled,wherever the stakes were high...something happened.This is the story of one of those days..right after the second world war..when American culture was trying to come back to life.The movie itself has spots and dots about that era..and we could easily see & feel this trough music,art,and all the surroundings.
Indeed a good and well directed movie.Makes you wonder about many things in life..about what you really want and what you actually get !Enjoy this movie,explore it's characters and let the music sway you one more time !.
This film, is also set in the 1950's, at an all girls school, with Julia Roberts as a new Art History teacher.
Her performance was also very good, and the makeup they used for her character was outstanding, making it look like she was actually a young woman in the 1950's.All in all it was an outstanding film, and a great story and script.
MONA LISA SMILE ***1/2 It's fall 1953, and Kathryn Watson (Julia Roberts) is starting her first year at Wellesley College for ladies as an Art History professor.
The story was good, the cast was better, but probably the most underlying reason for my liking this film was Maggie Gyllenhaal, a true great with an unbelievably bright future..
It's nice to have movies that encourage women to try and fit everything they want into their lives and to be the best and fullest they can be of their own free will and not feel tied to society's expectations.
the film represented several different types of women and scenarios (though they were quite exaggerated and somewhat stereotypical) which ranged from julia stiles choosing to marry the man she loved which did not involve a "sacrifice" of furthering her education to kirsten dunst playing a girl who truly had no clue about what she really wanted.at least it wasn't another Crossroads, eh?.
In `Mona Lisa Smile,' Julia Roberts portrays a college professor of art determined to change her female student's minds about their lots in life.
Roberts plays Katherine Watson, a graduate of UCLA looking for a position as an art professor at Wellesley College for young women.
All in all, `Mona Lisa Smile' is a good movie about following the path that is right for what that person holds true, not what the standards of society say.
All in all, `Mona Lisa Smile' is a good movie about following the path that is right for what that person holds true, not what the standards of society say.
It's the 1950s, the girls of a conservative upper class private school seem a bit too content with their traditional roles, so good old free thinking professor Julia Roberts decides to set them straight and get them in touch with their inner girl power (the kind that runs so rampant in modern times that it's almost staggering) and rage against the machine.Had this movie been made in the same era in which it is set it might have meant something.
It was the female version of Dead Poet's Society (which I loved) - but it was very very bad.Granted, I'm a fan of Julia Roberts and I've enjoyed a few Kirsten Dunst movies (Bring it On / Spiderman) and Julia Stiles (10 Things I Hate About You) - but I HATED this movie.I appreciate the theme, women shouldn't just wait around to get married but think/act for themselves.
With the name Mona Lisa Smile, it seems that the movie was supposed to have been centered more on Julia Roberts rather than the girls she must inspire.
Julia Roberts plays this Art History teacher who takes this teaching job at a snobby, stuckup, all-women college in Wellesley, MA in the mid 1950s.
I was excited to watch Mona Lisa Smile, I thought it was going to be a movie about Julia Roberts as a teacher rocking all those 50s girls worlds and opening their minds and in the beginning that's where it looked like it was going to go.
Julia Roberts plays a free-spirited bohemian who takes a job as an art history professor at a conservative college in the early 1950s and is displeased with the expectation that the girls will receive their degrees only to become homemakers.It's not any sort of great movie.
Mona Lisa Smile (2003) is a Julie Roberts movie set in the 1950s.
Julia Roberts put on a pretty good performance in this as Katherine Watson, a young art history instructor at Wellesley College in 1953.
I saw this movie on the TV last week and at first I assumed it would just be just another movie promoting feminism (there is nothing wrong with feminist thinking but movies where the only plot is to promote feminism are rarely entertaining) - "Mona Lisa Smile" showed that there is more to life than being a mother and house wife, but unlike other feminist movies it didn't completely bash the role of a house wife (which we see from Julia Stiles' character).Although the message was good, I can't say I really enjoyed this film - it was okay.
Also, some points of the plot are over-emphasized, e.g. Katherine's unconventional teaching methods (we don't need to be told by various characters that she "wanted to make a difference", that she's "subversive", "progressive" and so on, it should suffice to let her actions speak for themselves) and the roles as housewives that the students at Wellesley are supposed to shoulder (at least 50 percent of the scenes and lines showing how the girls were shaped into their future lives as housewives could have been omitted, we'd have got the picture anyway, I promise!).2) Two words: Julia Roberts.
The movie was very similar to Dead Poets Society in almost every way except that professor Katherine Ann Watson (Julia Roberts) had a flaw which made her real and gave the director a very interesting avenue to explore.
The movie also had a promising cast, including stars like Julia Roberts and Kirsten Dunst.