a new guilty pleasure, the movie "Mona Lisa Smile."

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 8:11pm

When this film came out last year, I wouldn't plunk down my ten bucks, no way no how. But it's all over cable now, and I'm always pulled in by some key scene, and can't turn it off. Try it. K. Dunst and Maggie Gylenthal are quite wonderful, and it has an extraordinary supporting cast of stage folk like Marian Seldes and Mary Beth Peil, all of whom do subtle work.

The central story about these 1953 co-eds is rendered in very by-the-numbers totally soapy terms (you can see that the script was revised many times to shape all the mini-arcs, and in particular, to give the Roberts character "dimension", i.e. romance, a dramatic suspense line resolved only in the final moments, etc., when the girls problems are always more compelling and can't help but upstage her.) But the underlying feminist issue that's dramatized about a role for women beyond housewife doesn't feel cliche, and actually has real weight by the end. Julie Stiles has a scene that truly surprises for its avoidance of obvious turns. And Roberts, who bores me in about everything since ERIN B, pulls off the semi-Jean Brodie thing, and even lets herself look pale and rather unattractive in key moments.

If anyone else avoided it as I did, especially 1950s junkies (you FAR FROM HEAVEN-ites!), don't miss the exceptionally exquite period details. In fact, if we lived in a world that still had double features, this film and FAR FROM HEAVEN would be a terrific one.

[stylinbohemian]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 8:13pm

I ironically just saw this movie finally this morning!

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 8:16pm

I hated this movie.

[Foxxy]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 9:34pm

the movie was okay. I REALLY liked the time period that it took place in. Loved the wardrobe.

[VonTussleGirl]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 9:38pm

Personally, I thought this movie was pretty good. Not by any means a favorite of mine, and there wer a couple spots which I didn't particularly like, but overall it was good.

Ugh... that was a horrible "review"... if you could call it that.

[bunchamuncha]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 9:44pm

Hated it, an alternative, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which I just saw and was a chick flick done well.

[broadway86]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 9:51pm

Not a fan of this movie at all, but some of the performances (especially Maggie Gyllenhaal and Marcia Gay Harden) were quite good.

[suddenlyseymour]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 10:45pm

i hated this movie, i almost died of boredom

[Plum]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 11:58pm

I didn't particularly like this movie, and the ending made me want to throw something at the screen. But I was visiting Wellsely as a prospective student when it was filming. Ah, good times.

Okay, not really. I barely slept on my grand college tour, I wasn't getting my schoolwork done, and the Yankees lost in the playoffs. But the campus was really pretty.

[BroomstickBoy]

Posted: 6/13/05 at 1:07am

I haven't watched this movie, and I doubt I ever will but if I did, I'd just fast-forward it to see Tori Amos.

[~FloweryFriend~]

Posted: 6/13/05 at 1:27am

Maybe I'm tainted because I attend a women's college, but I loved this movie.

And the soundtrack is incredible.