Python Hyena Mona Lisa Smile (2003): Dir: Mike Newell / Cast: Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ginnifer Goodwin: Recycled rehash about finding the good among the bad. That is pretty much an even clash with this film. Julia Roberts is set to teach art history at an all female college where she battles various obstacles from snide students to her students graduating to become wives. It plays like Mr. Holland's Opus and The Emperor's Club in drag. Directed by Mike Newell whose films often address history and character as with Donnie Brasco and the pitiful The Newton Boys. This one falls into the same category as the last mentioned film. The ending is laughable with Roberts departing with all of those tearful misfits biking along side her frustrated cab driver. Roberts is basically reciting what many other actors have done better. She endures the clichés and stereotypes with a fake smile that even Mona Lisa could see through. Kirsten Dunst plays the rebellious student who will change her ways and shed tears when Roberts leaves. Julia Stiles bares a phony accent and accepts the simple demand for marriage before shedding tears upon Roberts leaving. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays the sexually active student who will also join in the shedding of tears. It misses the mark by inducting formula storytelling. Its familiar plot leaves little to smile about. Score: 3 / 10

jakerresq Preachy vehicle that takes setting up a straw man to new level. Could this (Wellesley) possibly be the college that a mere decade later would hatch Alinsky inspired Hillary Rodham? The trustees must be turning over in their graves. OK, the fifties were a long way from the tumultuous sixties (See: Sixty Stanzas For The Sixties), but this mindless bunch of zombies (and their modern day sexually obscure Jeanne Brody) would never have gained entrance to this high achieving albeit elite institution.I'm a guy who likes a lot of "chick flicks" and finds the phrase dismissive and unfair, but not for this one. Run guys run.

Claudio Carvalho 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. She leaves her boy-friend Paul Moore (John Slattery) in California and share a house with the teacher Nancy Abbey (Marcia Gay Harden) and the nurse Amanda (Juliet Stevenson). 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. The performances are top-notch, highlighting Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles and Maggie Gyllenhaal. I bought this DVD many years ago and only today I have seen this movie recommended by a friend of mine. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "O Sorriso de Mona Lisa" ("The Smile of Mona Lisa")

secondtake 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 writing is a little strained and forcing some of the sexist themes of the 1950s on the audience. So even the stellar cast--Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal--can't give this the sincerity it needs. But the period looks terrific, the music and the dresses are fine, so the whole atmosphere frankly becomes the compelling center of the movie.Not that the plot isn't worthwhile. Roberts is a "progressive" art teacher who for some reason has been hired at this ultra-conservative place. She automatically is lost at sea, but gradually wins over her students with such daring subjects as Van Gogh, who is presented as radical somehow, though conservative enough to become paint by numbers, too. 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. They went to get their degree, but also their Mrs., as they used to say. And then with the best credentials in the world they would become housewives. Happily. Mostly.There is a rivalry right away between Roberts and a goody-goody Dunst, who is pretty good at being an evil brat, and a sensuous modern student played by Gyllenhaal, who wants the same man Roberts seems to want. Seems to. The romances are not very vivid, the housewifery is canned and uncomplicated (almost drawn from the magazine ads that they keep showing in lectures on a big screen), and the characters themselves are simplified to the point of simplicity. 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. Such are the movies. This could have been a better movie with the same basic story but lots better writing and directing. The ambition was kept in check, and so the movie does the minimum here, and not always so badly if the minimum will do.On a final note, there are a number of women behind the scenes here (though not the director or writers, sadly): music, art direction, set decoration, and casting. And of course nearly all of the cast.