Mona Lisa Smile

THE STORY

MONA LISA SMILE is about a bohemian Californian art history professor, Katherine Watson, who leaves the sunny, progressive shores of California's Oakland State to teach at one of the most prestigious - and tight-ass conservative - women's college in America: Wellesley.

She arrives for the academic year of 1953 with high hopes of introducing her beloved modern art to her students, but to her dismay, she finds that Wellesley, which boasts an enrollment list of the finest young women in America, lacks nothing - except a free and open mind. Every woman in her art history class has memorized the syllabus or so it seems, until a determined Watson decides to shake up their preconceived notions of what makes art good.

Watson runs into conflict with the board of alumni, to whom it is inconceivable that Picasso could ever be as important as Michelangelo, and they tell her so. Unfazed, Watson sticks to her guns, only to find out the consequences of not conforming: Amanda Armstrong, the school nurse, gets terminated for "promoting sexual promiscuity" simply by giving a student contraception.

Despite her frustration, Watson finds a few curious and bright minds among her students, chief among them Joan Brandwyn and Elizabeth Warren - the former open and inquisitive; the latter viciously critical of what she thinks are Watson's "subversive ways"

Watson yearns to show her girls that for them, life could be so much more than the marriage and family path they have been ingrained to follow one way or another. Yet sadly, she finds tradition has too strong a hold and knows her tenure at Wellesley could only last for one year, not because of the girls, but because she has to stay true to herself.

THE PEOPLE

The film features an all-star cast of America's finest actresses - surely reason enough to watch it if for nothing else. Julia Roberts heads the A-list as the likeable sincere bohemian Katherine Watson; Julia Stiles of teen-movie ilk shines as Joan Brandwyn in her period debut; Kirsten Dunst makes you hate - yet cry - for her torn-apart Elizabeth Warren.

One underrated performance comes from Maggie Gyllenhaal (sister to a certain Jake), who portrays her black-sheep character - the sensual, "everything-is-erotic" Giselle Levy - with laudable sensitivity and touching tenderness.

Dominic West has a small but visible role as Watson's fleeting love interest, Italian professor Bill Dunbar, as does Juliet Stevenson who plays dismissed school nurse Amanda Armstrong with understanding and flair.

THE REVIEW

MONA LISA SMILE portrays accurately the changing moral atmosphere of the fifties, when a post-war America struggles to liberalise, yet certain segments still cling on to outdated notions of gender roles. You can sense the liberal Watson's frustration and helplessness at tradition's stronghold on Wellesley and empathise with her efforts to introduce independent thinking to a group of girls who have always left it to parents and then husbands.

The film has authentic 50s garb which looks somewhat odd on actresses we always see in the height of hip, but no less refreshing with their talent for wearing them well. (Although you think, "Gee, is that what my grandma wore?")

TO WATCH OR NOT TO WATCH

It is well worth the cost of the DVD or VCD - and your time - to sit down to a solid, warm performance from some of the best actresses in the industry.

MONA LISA SMILE, much like a good wine, slides down smooth and warm. It is, in essence, a thinking girl's chick flick, and we have too few of it. Watch it to see, too, how one woman can have a profound influence over her students and become unforgettable in just one year at Wellesley.