You can always count on Julia Roberts to deliver a stellar performance, regardless of what role she is given.
In Mona Lisa Smile, Roberts fills a serious and draining role that she may be a little miscast for, but her million-dollar smile and charm win over audiences. Roberts plays Katherine Watson, a freethinking Berkeley California graduate hired to teach art history at the snooty, conservative and all-female Wellesley College in 1953.
Her unconventional style of teaching challenges her students to go against some of the school's uptight traditions, causing the staff at Wellesley to keep her under a microscope of constant scrutiny. Katherine has enough of an effect on the place and the girls at Wellesley that she is labeled "subversive."
Facing ongoing obstacles, Katherine quickly learns that the girls at Wellesley College are brilliant and extremely hardworking, but that most of their minds and hearts are set on getting married and settling down instead of pursuing degrees and a career. Many students attempt to challenge her as a professor, including Betty Warren (Kirsten Dunst, Spiderman). Warren portrays the conservative and snotty school reporter Betty Warren and does not agree with Katherine's independent thinking.
However, other students flock to her, including Betty's best friend, Joan Brandwyn (Julia Stiles, Save the Last Dance). Brandwyn immediately forms a bond with her professor. Katharine challenges and encourages Brandwyn to apply to Yale Law School. For the very smart, but provocative, Giselle Levy, (Maggie Gyllenhaal, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind), Katherine is a much-needed role model and mentor. Shy and sweet Connie Baker, portrayed by Ginnifer Goodwin, draws courage from Katherine's example and eventually gains confidence to overcome some of her insecurities.
Katherine wants to teach the students how to think for themselves in a world that tells them how to live. She preaches a message of emancipation to the girls, and that there is more to life than just marriage. The girls can have both a marriage and career. This instills fear in both the Wellesley girls and the faculty due to Katherine's seemingly feminist slogan that "you can bake your cake and eat it too!"
Eventually, Katherine earns the respect of her students as they start to learn that sometimes they have to look more closely at a painting to comprehend its meaning. They may have to open up their eyes to different ideas, and the same lesson can be applied beyond the art to their lives. Katherine makes a difference in the lives of her students, even though the faculty is nothing but unfeeling toward her. Although the faculty invite her back for another year at Wellesley, they establish a list of dos and don'ts and Katherine, like the girls, must make a choice about her own future.
English director Mike Newell said he wanted to make a film about a teacher that would instill some feminist fire into 1953 Wellesley undergraduates who would otherwise leave school with "MRS" Degrees. Newell is currently filming Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in the next few months, has directed several high-profile films such as Donnie Brasco in 1997 with Johnny Depp, and Four Weddings and a Funeral with Hugh Grant in 1993.
Mona Lisa Smile has been referred to as a female version of Dead Poets Society, in which Robin Williams portrays a wacky teacher who brings a daring way of thinking to a strict boys' boarding school. Newell has denied this comparison in interviews, saying that the film is more about the women being emotionally tied to each other's emotional problems and affecting one another.
Newell had his cast read a book about the '50s and required that they take a crash course in the decade's etiquette, including ballroom dancing, table setting and walking and sitting like the ladies they were portraying in the film.
The film shells out an all-star cast of young rising starlets including Dunst, Stiles and Gyllenhaal. Dominic West also performs well as Bill Dunbar, Wellesley's Italian language professor and Katherine's brief love interest. Although there are a few flaws here and there with the plot and the ending, which wasn't what I had expected, I thoroughly enjoyed the film. Roberts plays a large role in the film's success.
Her 15-year career started with Mystic Pizza, leading her to an important role in Steel Magnolias. She also gave an Oscar-award-winning performance in Erin Brockovich that earned her a $20 million salary and deemed her highest paid actress in Hollywood.
I highly recommend Mona Lisa mostly to women. This film, I do admit, is mostly a chick flick, although I did see a small percentage of men in the theater. This film is important not just because of the great acting, but also because of the strong moral message it delivers: You have to find and live your own truth.
Stephanie Anderson is a reporter for the Web Devil. Reach her at stephanie.j.anderson@asu.edu.
