Mike Newell directed Lisa Smile, a pretentious campus melodrama written by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, and starring Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Grade: C+ (** out of *****)
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Theatrical release poster
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The title is a reference to the Mona Lisa, the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, and to the song of the same name, originally performed by Nat King Cole, which was covered by Seal for the movie.
The movie is now better known for its star, Julia Roberts, who received a record $25 million for her performance, the highest ever earned by an actress at that time.
Roberts plays Katherine Ann Watson, a 30-year-old graduate student from the Department of Art History at UCLA and Oakland State, who takes a position teaching art history at Wellesley College.
At her first class, Katherine discovers her students have memorized the entire textbook and syllabus, so she introduces them to modern art and encourages discussion about what is “good art.”
The movie is set at Wellesley College in 1953 and 1954, when the school was still a proper upper-class breeding ground for dutiful young wives. Representing sort of a rebellious spirit, Katherine is seeking to inspire her students to achieve more than conventional marriage and domestic life as wives and mothers.
Quite disappointingly, Roberts renders a muted, half-hearted performance that seldom convinces her character’s commitments to the values she espouses. As scripted, Katherine lacks shadings and complexity; it’s unclear if there’s also a power issue beyond the high-faulting ideals.
Admittedly, it’s not an easy task to visually portray intellectual ideas and life of the mind in any movie, let alone in a star-driven mainstream movie. As a result, Mona Lisa Smile is at once simplistic and predictable, especially so in its sugar-coated “happy ending.”
Robert’s salary amounted to one third of the production budget, about $72 million.
Greeted with negative reviews, the movie barely recouped its budget but was not particularly popular at the box office.
Credits:
Directed by Mike Newell
Written by Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal
Produced by Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Deborah Schindler, Paul Schiff
Cinematography Anastas Michos
Edited by Mick Audsley
Music by Rachel Portman
Production companies: Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios
Red Om Films Productions
Distributed by Sony Pictures
Release date: December 19, 2003
Running time: 119 minutes
Budget $72.3 million
Box office $141.3 million
Films of similar interest:
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Dead Poets Society
