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Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers (WGA):
Release Date:
19 December 2003 (USA)
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Tagline:
In a world that told them how to think, she showed them how to live. more
Plot:
A free-thinking art professor teaches conservative 50's Wellesley girls to question their traditional societal roles. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
Nominated for Golden Globe.
Another 5 nominations
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NewsDesk:
(52 articles)
Julia Roberts moves Into the Neighborhood
(From Corona's Coming Attractions. 2 November 2009, 1:16 PM, PST)
Celebrity Biography: Julia Roberts
(From PopStar. 23 May 2009, 10:12 PM, PDT)
(From Corona's Coming Attractions. 2 November 2009, 1:16 PM, PST)
Celebrity Biography: Julia Roberts
(From PopStar. 23 May 2009, 10:12 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
A disappointing picture of Wellesley College in 1953
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Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | Julia Roberts | ... | Katherine Ann Watson |
 | Kirsten Dunst | ... | Betty Warren |
 | Julia Stiles | ... | Joan Brandwyn |
 | Maggie Gyllenhaal | ... | Giselle Levy |
 | Ginnifer Goodwin | ... | Connie Baker |
 | Dominic West | ... | Bill Dunbar |
 | Juliet Stevenson | ... | Amanda Armstrong |
 | Marcia Gay Harden | ... | Nancy Abbey |
 | John Slattery | ... | Paul Moore |
 | Marian Seldes | ... | President Jocelyn Carr |
 | Donna Mitchell | ... | Mrs. Warren |
| Terence Rigby | ... | Dr. Edward Staunton |
 | Jennie Eisenhower | ... | Girl at the Station |
| Leslie Lyles | ... | Housing Director |
 | Laura Allen | ... | Susan Delacorte |
Additional Details
MPAA:
Rated PG-13 for sexual content and thematic issues.
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
117 min
Country:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Brazil:12 |
Canada:G (British Columbia/Ontario/Quebec) |
Canada:PG (Alberta/Manitoba/Nova Scotia) |
Iceland:L |
Malaysia:U |
Finland:S |
South Korea:12 |
Netherlands:AL |
Sweden:Btl |
USA:PG-13 |
Argentina:13 |
Australia:PG |
Hong Kong:IIA |
Philippines:PG-13 |
Singapore:PG |
Spain:7
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
In order to prepare for her role, Julia Roberts observed art history classes at New York University.
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Goofs:
Errors in geography: When Katherine visits Joan's house to show her law school brochures, there are palm plants in the front of the house. These plants would not survive in the climate of Massachusetts where the film is set.
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Quotes:
[first lines]
Betty Warren: [voiceover] All her life, she had wanted to teach at Wellesley College. So, when a position opened in the Art History department, she pursued it single-mindedly until she was hired. It was whispered that Katherine Watson, a first-year teacher from Oakland State, made up in brains what she lacked in pedigree. Which was why this bohemian from California was on her way to the most conservative college in the nation.
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Betty Warren: [voiceover] All her life, she had wanted to teach at Wellesley College. So, when a position opened in the Art History department, she pursued it single-mindedly until she was hired. It was whispered that Katherine Watson, a first-year teacher from Oakland State, made up in brains what she lacked in pedigree. Which was why this bohemian from California was on her way to the most conservative college in the nation.
more
Movie Connections:
Featured in The 61st Annual Golden Globe Awards (2004) (TV)
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Soundtrack:
Bewitched
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FAQ
How does it end?more
more (249 total)
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As a graduate of Wellesley College, 1952, I was eager to see the movie. For a while I thought maybe it was supposed to be a satire. I had read reviews but no one mentioned satire. It was so ludicrous, so over the top, so busy giving us stereotypes, and so far from my experience that it was depressing. I didn't mind the Julia Roberts character although she is probably anachronistic. Certainly those young women, so well dressed for classes, talking back to her in well thought out sentences full of vitriol were figments of Hollywood's imagination. I remember no courses offered, either in classrooms or rooms in dorms or faculty housing, on "poise," proper table setting, etc. And nowhere in the movie did any of the girls discuss ideas (except in the art class). The nighttime dormitory sessions were all about men, getting husbands, and pointing fingers at Giselle, the "whore." In actuality, we used to stay up late discussing ideas, and we were passionate about such things as academic freedom.
The plush dormitory rooms were more figments of Hollywood's imagination. Our rooms were of the bare bones variety. I remember bringing a comfortable chair of my own from home.
I loved my art history and music appreciation courses. They changed my life. I had known nothing of art before Wellesley and only the Warsaw Concerto for classical music. But those two courses informed my life and have stayed with me all these years, enriching my experience. I had a career as a high school English teacher and my literature courses were wonderful for that purpose and for expanding my reading. But the art and music courses were special.
Good acting; good costumes for the most part; the people looked authentic for the times (except too dressed up for class; we wore skirts and blouses, no blue jeans). It was nice to see some of the beautiful campus. I don't remember ever taking part in hoop rolling, daisy chain, the opening day ceremony in front of the chapel.
Finally, what was the point of making such a movie today? To suggest how far we've come from the 1950s? To ridicule what was then? After all, there was much that was good. I mean I feel so lucky to have been able to go to a place like Wellesley even if it was for the privileged. It certainly was not as conservative as the movie depicted; nor was it a "finishing school." Professors were continually opening our minds to more and more knowledge. The canon then may have been mostly men (we read almost all male writers in our English courses, but that's how it was). What was wonderful, however, was being with all women, being able to speak up freely in class, being able to win positions of authority in extra curricular organizations like the college newspaper. Not having to compete with men.
I was really disappointed, In the Women's Room after the movie, I questioned everyone there...there were a couple my age or a little younger and then a few a generation or more younger. Everyone had liked the movie! One young woman tried to tell me it wasn't just about Wellesley; they were depicting the 50s in general. But the fact is the 50s in general were not that dismal!