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Review by Harvey Karten
1½ stars out of 4
If you went to an out-of-town college during the Jurassic Age
(1950's), as I did, you'll recognize what's on display in Mike
Newell's classically styled film. That the young women and their
Art History 100 instructor are types is not to take away too much
from the university-based drama, though what is disappointing
is the lack of creativity a flaw that relegates "Mona Lisa Smile"
to the large bin of formulaic, Hollywood creations. As I recall
from my days at Tufts, which like the Wellesley College that
forms the background of Lawrence Konner and Mark
Rosenthal's story, the women at Wellesley were known to us as
stuck-up (a term often used in the fifties) while those at Tufts'
sister school, Jackson College, were rated overtly intellectual.
We tended to prefer the down-to-earth residents of Boston
University .
Those in the audience who are under the age of sixty have
likely gained their knowledge of the Eisenhower years from
movies like Todd Haynes's "Far from Heaven," which has the
look and feel of a Douglas Sirk soap, dealing with issues that
were taboo to films of that very decade. "Mona Lisa Smile" also
treats some subjects freely discussed today though taboo then,
but since the U.S. in 1953 was on the cusp of the women's
movement, those topics were embracing discussion a little more
freely, and what's more one independent-minded student in
Newell's pic is conducting affairs with three different men and
not at all embarrassed about flaunting her choice.
"Mona Lisa Smile," filmed by Anastas Michos at Wellesley
College and at sites around Columbia and Yale, opens on
Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts), heading into her first job as
an instructor in Art History 100. Politically liberal, she bumps
hard against the culture of Wellesley which, despite its location
in the heartland of the progressive state of Massachusetts is
bogged down in the regressive politics of the period. The
school is for women only, only white faces are on exhibit, and
the student body comes across as well-heeled to a fault.
(Things are a lot different there now.) During her first lecture-
discussion, Katherine shows slides of art works dating from
prehistoric times and is surprised by the knowledge already
possessed by a class, leaving her little slack to show her stuff.
Surprisingly enough, Katherine realizes that these rich charges
of hers know quite a bit about what they are supposed to know.
She is determined to challenge them by exhibiting some
modern art later demonstrating both Jackson Pollock, also
some pop-art pictures to show the absurdity of a culture that
keeps women "in their place." For taking liberties with the
curriculum guide, she is hauled on the carpet by the school
president.
The film scores in giving its audience an inkling of what a
class in art history is like. Teacher shows slides, students
discuss how style defines or subverts its historical period Later
she shows us how corporations have patronized and
condescended to the great works of the past by, in one case,
devising a "paint by the numbers" game so that "you too can be
Van Gogh."
Kirsten Dunst is nicely cast as the story's bitch, unhappy with
her premature marriage to a guy who is probably philandering,
taking her grief out on those of her classmates who appear most
vulnerable as well as publishing editorials in the school paper
about the shortcomings of the faculty, including the audacity of
the school nurse in supplying diaphragms on demand to the
young people. Julia Stiles performs in the role of Joan
Brandwyn, pushed by Katherine to apply to Yale Law School
(which in 1953 allowed five spots for women in the incoming
class), but determined to chuck the chance for a career to be
with her man in Philadelphia (ugh). Maggie Gyllenhaal is the
school's beatnik-to-be, carrying on three affairs including one
with a teacher of Italian. Other types abound, including the shy
gal, Connie (Ginnifer Goodwin) who learns to stop being a
punching bag, and Nancy (Marcia Gay Harden), as a teacher of
speech, poise and homemaking (who helps convince Katherine
that she must actually be in a finishing school and not a
college). The parts for men are all underwritten.
Julia Roberts can play this sort of role blindfolded,
as speaking of punching bags the fifties are an era regularly
bashed and Ms. Roberts does well as the woman who is going
to take her young women quickly into 1970. Ultimately, though,
"Mona Lisa Smile" offers little to smile about. Mike Newell,
whose "Four Weddings and a Funeral" exuded buoyancy and
charm in its depiction of a man who could not sustain a
relationship, has regressed to a style that could have cut more
ice on the British television of the 1950's in which he had a
hand. Newell is on record as a critic of what he calls the
pretentiousness of some art-house fare, but in "Mona Lisa
Smile" he has gone too far in the opposite direction, giving us a
nicely composed but finally pedestrian work.
Copyright © 2003 Harvey Karten
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