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DVD Mona Lisa Smile
Julia Roberts's command of the screen is so effortless, it's easy for moviegoers to take her for granted--but we shouldn't. Mona Lisa Smile--about a noncomformist teacher at a private school who encourages students to pursue their individuality--is pretty much an all-girls version of Dead Poets Society that mixes '50s fashions with '70s feminist thought. However, its lack of ambition doesn't diminish the talent that's gone into it: The writing and directing are well-honed and skillful; the actors--a talent-studded cast featuring Marcia Gay Harden, Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Julia Stiles, and Juliet Stevenson--are uniformly excellent. But without question, Mona Lisa Smile rides on Roberts's shoulders and she carries it with ease. She's possibly the only contemporary actor who simply owns a movie the way Bette Davis, Jean Arthur, or Claudette Colbert once did, radiating a engaging mix of intelligence, drive, and emotional warmth that cannot be matched. --Bret Fetzer
What women wanted: the 1950s "happy housewife" breaks free
"Mona Lisa Smile" follows Katherine Ann Watson (Julia Roberts), a progressive, feminist art teacher as she travels from California to Wellesley in 1953 to accept her dream job as an art history professor. Wellesley is an exclusive girls' school, home to well-bred, wealthy young women whose sole purpose after college (often during) is to get married, have babies, and be the perfect mother and housewife. Katherine is quickly frustrated by the stifling traditional atmosphere.
On the first day of class, Katherine is humiliated when all of the students have memorized the art history textbook, quickly making a shambles of her first lesson. Shaken, Katherine calls her boyfriend in tears. The girls are rude, conceited, and have no intent to challenge themselves, which is where Katherine draws the line. Ever the trooper, she marches back to the next class with slides of modern art, making the girls think outside the textbook on the nature of art.
The rest of the film follows Katherine as she attempts to fight the Stepford Wives system: the girls spend time learning etiquette, poise, and elocution, place settings, and banter, but mostly hunting future husbands and having lavish weddings. Katherine soon locks horns with Betty (Kirsten Dunst), the most dangerous of the lot. Betty's backstabbing quickly sees to the firing of the school's lesbian nurse for distributing contraceptives, and tries to have Katherine fired as well. She is generally only good at bringing misery to those around her, failing to see her own shortcomings or her husband's infidelities.
Katherine soon comes up against the opinions of the other professors, and is pursued by Bill Dunbar, the handsome Italian professor who sleeps with his students. To me, the romance felt forced: Katherine rejects a marriage proposal, and a woman as liberal and feminist as Katherine wouldn't be caught dead with the chauvinistic Bill. The camaraderie of several of the students (Joan, Giselle, and Connie) is shown throughout the year at different campus events, which serves to develop their characters and to see the difference that Katherine makes on their lives (Giselle aspires to be more like Katherine).
Katherine soon is introducing "dangerous, subversive" feminist ideas by using propaganda (advertisements) of housewives to show the girls that throwing their education away for a happy home is a mistake. One of her students, Joan, is accepted to Yale Law School, but her decision and freedom is ultimately her own to decide.
This was a better movie than I expected after reading several reviews. The period costumes and music really transported me to a simpler time. Julia Roberts' character was delightfully down to earth, and the many big-name young stars (Kirsten Dunst, Topher Grace, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal) fit seamlessly into the fabric of the early 1950s. The scenery of Wellesley College (filmed on location) reminded me strongly of my own campus (Michigan State with its Beaumont Tower). The film has moments of humor, but also darker moments of jealousy and spite that result in larger consequences (the firing of the school nurse, a broken relationship, a girl being thrown out of her home).
The DVD comes with a few extras, namely three featurettes on College: Now and Then, Art History, and What Women Wanted: 1953, which all feature movie footage interspersed with interviews from cast and crew, a music video for Elton John's "The Heart of Every Girl," and several movie trailers.
On the Whole, a Good Film. But Nothing Original Here.
While a bit formulaic, MONA LISA SMILE manages to escape the chains of the "inspiring teacher" format, if only for short periods of time. During these moments, we feel as if we are glimpsing something real, a teacher who is not invincible, who does not know everything, etc. Like many films about teaching these days, the plot suffers from a dual burden: how do we both explore the life of the teacher AND the lives of her students. In the end, it is a losing battle, and very few films manage to pull it off. The ones that do succeed (for example, DEAD POETS SOCIETY), do so because they ultimately choose one over the other.
I brought up the movie, so I might as well complete the comment that has been made over and over again: MONA LISA SMILE feels very much like a female-version of DEAD POETS SOCIETY. The difference here is that the "tradition" that threatens to break the wills of the students is not merely a New England prep-school mentality--it is the bonds of patriarchy. This lends extra "bite" to the themes in the film and provide for a compelling storyline.
Overall, Roberts does a fantastic job owning the screen and we root for her all the way. MONA LISA SMILE is not the best "teaching" film I've seen recently, but it certainly is not the worst either. If you have any love of the genre, you have to check it out.
excellent
This is a really eye-opening film. Instead of women being mere cheerleaders from the sidelines, the teacher challenges their education and encourages them to apply it. Back then women went to school to become better conversation partners for their husbands (and to be a better hostess for her husbands' friends), impress their families, etc...but still stayed at home and was still judged on her ability to keep it clean, have children and be faithful and a good parent (even if the husband was not). In the social (pecking) order or hierarchy, femininity still meant playing the doll, and marriage was a trap for reasons other than true love. Essentially women can do almost anything a man can, even be in business, leaders and soldiers. Arguments about representing only the majority leads to being artificially handicapped (disabled and disarmed). There are inner natural abilities and the outer, aesthetic stereotypical/traditional gender roles a society or culture imposes upon oneself. Which do you choose?
As upscale sitcoms go, Something's Gotta Give has more to offer than most romantic comedies. Obviously working through some semi-autobiographical issues regarding "women of a certain age," writer-director Nancy Meyers brings adequate credibility and above-average intelligence to what is essentially (but not exclusively) a fantasy premise, in which an aging lothario who's always dated younger women (Jack Nicholson, more or less playing himself) falls for a successful middle-aged playwright (Diane Keaton) who's convinced she's past the age of romance, much less sexual re-awakening. As long as old pals Nicholson and Keaton are on screen discussing their dilemma or discovering their mutual desire, Something's Gotta Give is terrific, proving (in case anyone had forgotten) that... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Nancy Meyers DVD Release Date: Released the 30 March 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Though she made her first movie at the age of 13, Diane Lane has only blossomed into a true star in her 30s, and Under the Tuscan Sun marks her full flowering. After a brutal divorce, Frances (Lane, Unfaithful, A Walk on the Moon) is persuaded by her friend Patti (Sandra Oh) to take a tour of Italy--where, on a whim that she hopes will rescue her from her desperate unhappiness, she buys a rundown villa and sets out to renovate it. Along the way, she gets advice from a former Fellini actress, meets a scrumptious Italian lover, and helps support Patti after her own relationship derails. The conclusion of Under the Tuscan Sun holds no surprises, but the deft turns and observations along the way are delightful. Lane carries the film effortlessly but surely, exuding... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Audrey Wells DVD Release Date: Released the 03 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Like an airport running at peak efficiency, The Terminal glides on the consummate skills of its director and star. Having refined their collaborative chemistry on Saving Private Ryan and Catch Me if You Can, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks mesh like the precision gears of a Rolex, turning a delicate, not-very-plausible scenario into a lovely modern-age fable (partly based on fact) that's both technically impressive and subtly moving. It's Spielberg in Capra mode, spinning the featherweight tale of Victor Navorski (Hanks, giving a finely tuned performance), an Eastern European who arrives at New York's Kennedy Airport just as his (fictional) homeland has fallen to a coup, forcing him, with no valid citizenship, to take indefinite residence in the airport's expansive... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Tom Hanks - Catherine Zeta-Jones - Chi McBride Director(s): Steven Spielberg DVD Release Date: Released the 23 November 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Something got lost in translation from 1996's critically acclaimed Japanese comedy, but the American remake of Shall We Dance? is not without charms of its own. In being transplanted from Tokyo to Chicago, the original version's subtle humor is shaken out of its cultural context, but this is an otherwise faithful adaptation in which a weary lawyer (Richard Gere) battles his mid-life crisis with ballroom dancing lessons, while his wife (Susan Sarandon) hires a private detective to see if he's cheating. Those expecting a Jennifer Lopez showcase will be disappointed; her role as the melancholy dance instructor keeps the beautifully lovelorn J-Lo on the sidelines, while a cast of standard-issue supporting characters (especially Stanley Tucci's clandestine faux-Latin dance lover)... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Richard Gere - Jennifer Lopez - Susan Sarandon - Stanley Tucci Director(s): Peter Chelsom DVD Release Date: Released the 01 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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With no fewer than eight couples vying for our attention, Love Actually is like the Boston Marathon of romantic comedies, and everybody wins. Having mastered the genre as the writer of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Bridget Jones's Diary, it appears that first-time director Richard Curtis is just like his screenplays: He just wants to be loved, and he'll go to absurdly appealing lengths to win our affection. With Love Actually, Curtis orchestrates a minor miracle of romantic choreography, guiding a brilliant cast of stars and newcomers as they careen toward love and holiday cheer in London, among them the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) who's smitten with his caterer; a widower (Liam Neeson) whose young son nurses the ultimate schoolboy... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Hugh Grant - Liam Neeson DVD Release Date: Released the 27 April 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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