Mona Lisa Smile

Set in 1953, Art History teacher Katherine Watson (Roberts) comes to work in the austere surroundings of Wellesley Women’s college where elite girls come to study even though after they graduate, they are expected merely to serve highly-educated male counterparts in well-tailored marriages. Watson though has more liberated ideas and unorthodox ways of teaching which are going to come into conflict with the powers-that-be who run the College who believe in more conservative and traditional beliefs when it comes to teaching. Many of the others leading the cast play pupils who come into contact with Watson. Mona Lisa Smile is ably directed by Newell and it’s a reasonably told film that may well find a strong female audience given that all the leading roles are taken by women. In a sense though, there’s a deja-vu feeling, isn’t this a female equivalent of Dead Poets’ Society where a new broom sweeps into town, causes conflict but gradually the pupils begin to appreciate a teacher who makes them ‘think outside the box’ rather than one who just sticks religiously to a syllabus. Watson’s values are also liberating, she encourages one of her pupils for instance to consider a career in law and tries to positively encourage her to put her career first and her intentions to be part of a marriage second. Its well acted, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Kirsten Dunst are lively in supporting roles, and Roberts gives one of her better performances as Watson. It will find an audience but it may also struggle given that this is essentially a period film about well-to-do pupils in a genre where there is a feeling that we’re treading on ground already explored previously in films like Dead Poets’ Society.

Matt Arnoldi