Film Review

Mona Lisa Smile(2003)

Cast: Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dominic West, Juliet           Stevenson, Marcia Gay Harden

Director: Mike Newell  

Synopsis: Katherine Ann Watson starts as a student of 'Art History' at UCLA who takes a teaching position at Wellesley College, a conservative women's art college in Massachusetts. Discovering that her students have already memorized the entire textbook and syllabus, she uses the classes to introduce them to modern art, encourage discussion and seeks to inspire them to achieve more than marriage to eligible young men.

Review:

Set on year 1953, it is seen that young girls in Wellesley College either marry during college time or after their graduation. Katherine Ann Watson, a teacher from Oakland State changes their thinking and encourages to pursue their dreams and goals. The message from this film is that marriage is not too necessary for women and that they should be independent themselves and give themselves time before they are ready to marry. 

The protagonist, Katherine(Julia Roberts) does a great job as the role of a teacher. She acts confidently in front of the camera and expresses her emotions as the situation demands. The character of a brilliant teacher fits her perfectly. Others who play the role of students, especially Kirsten Dunst portrays the highly opinionated and conservative type student perfectly whereas Julia Stiles is shown as smart student and Maggie as sexually advanced one. Dominic West, who played his part of Italian teacher was excellent and suited him.

The location of the movie was in Wellesley College which was a good idea for such film to shoot and it gave a school type of vibe. The dialogues were excellently written and spoken such that it was very clear to understand what was being said. The film is fairly long, nearly 120 minutes of run time. There were a few times when the movie felt a bit drawn out, but the gorgeous action scenes and impressive dialogues really held it all. Despite having a love life of Watson, the film wasn't about her but about overcoming obstacles and making a rightful decision for yourselves. It's about achieving your dreams and viewing the world from new perspective. To sum up, the film is best in itself and gives a strong message to everyone about misconceptions of our thinking, culture. It is definitely worth a few hours of our time.