Rent Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
3.1 of 5 from 180 ratings
1h 54min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- 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 (Julia Roberts), a recent graduate is hired to teach art history at the prestigious all-female Wellesley College 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 Determined to confront the outdated values of society and the institution that embraces them, Katherine inspires her traditional minded students to challenge the lives they are expected to lead.
- Actors:
- Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ginnifer Goodwin, Dominic West, Juliet Stevenson, Marcia Gay Harden, John Slattery, Marian Seldes, Donna Mitchell, Terence Rigby, Jennie Eisenhower, Leslie Lyles, Laura Allen, Topher Grace, Lily Lodge, Jordan Bridges, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Christopher Braden Jones
- Directors:
- Mike Newell
- Producers:
- Deborah Schindler, Paul Schiff, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas
- Writers:
- Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal
- Aka:
- La sonrisa de Mona Lisa
- Studio:
- Columbia Tristar
- Genres:
- Drama
- Collections:
- 2004, A Brief History of Cinema Afloat: Part 3, A Brief History of Classical Music on Film - Musicians, Back to School: Best Films Featuring Teachers, Top 10 Autumn Films, Top 10 Titles Featuring the Mona Lisa
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 08/09/2008
- Run Time:
- 119 minutes
- Languages:
- Czech Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1, Polish Dolby Digital 5.1, Russian Dolby Digital 5.1, Turkish Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles:
- Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, English, English Hard of Hearing, Estonian, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, Slovenian, Turkish
- DVD Regions:
- Region 2
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 1.85:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- (0) All
- Bonus:
- Art Forum - Featurette
- College Then and Now - Featurette
- What Women Wanted: 1953 - Featurette
- Elton John: The Heart of Every Girl - Music Video
- Special Features in Standard Definition
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Reviews (3) of Mona Lisa Smile
Disappointing - Mona Lisa Smile review by Swambi
I was disappointed - there seemed to be a big budget, and Julia Roberts acted her heart out. However, this was a film where I never felt convinced or involved - possibly the whole exagerated caricature of 1950's aspirations was partly responsible for this.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
A Faint, Polite Smile - Mona Lisa Smile review by griggs
Julia Roberts arrives at 1950s Wellesley with a slide projector, determined to persuade a room of pearl-wearing overachievers that a husband isn't the final exam. Great setup, and early on I happily took notes from the back row.
The students are the best thing here. Kirsten Dunst plays a smug newlywed whose marriage curdles on schedule, Maggie Gyllenhaal gets the sharpest lines because she refuses to pretend the rules are fair, and Julia Stiles agonises between Yale Law and a wedding ring. Each has her own fears and ambitions, which helps. Roberts, irritatingly, is right about nearly everything, though Stiles has one good scene telling her otherwise.
The trouble is the script paints by numbers. Characters announce the moral, and anything knottier gets smoothed over. The nurse sacked for handing out contraception earns one scene of outrage before disappearing. It wants a gold star without making anyone squirm.
It looks lovely, all twinsets and autumn leaves, and the cast is good company. I finished it wearing a faint, polite smile — very much the Mona Lisa kind.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
A poor clone of Dead Poets Society - Mona Lisa Smile review by CP Customer
There isn't much original about 'Mona Lisa Smile' at all. The story of 'a good hearted yet radical and initially misunderstood teacher trying to make a difference to the lives of troubled students, all the while battling the conservative school establishment' has been done many a time before, and it's pretty obvious that 'Mona Lisa Smile' is not much more than a feminist version of 'Dead Poets Society'. But everything that made 'Dead Poets Society' a great film, the agony of being a teenager and living with parental expectations, is sadly lacking in this film. What you are left with is a rather pedestrian, by the numbers film that thinks it has a powerful message to tell, but in the end fails miserably.
1 out of 2 members found this review helpful.