Movies
Mona Lisa Smile
Julia Roberts, her two-ton ego, and her tapering tusklike head, in the part of a "forward-thinker" who travels east from Oakland State to her dream job at Wellesley, there to impart Art History platitudes and feminist fundamentals to the future homemakers in the Class of '54, and to lock horns with the "traditionalists" who run the place. Nothing marks her as a woman ahead of her time so much as her express desire -- already in the autumn of '53! -- "to make a difference." (The contractually obligatory line, spoken to her without irony: "You're so perfect.") Directed by Mike Newell, who once upon a time directed Dance with a Stranger, the movie itself, in its characterization of the straw women and cardboard cutouts who aren't up to the heroine's speed, could scarcely be more backward and small-minded. Among the students, Maggie Gyllenhaal earns top marks; Julia Stiles and Kirsten Dunst earn dunce caps. With Dominic West, Marcia Gay Harden, Juliet Stevenson. 2003.
Reader Rating:
MPAA Rating: PG-13