[BLU-RAY Review] MONA LISA SMILE
When I received an email just after returning from holiday asking me if I wanted to have a copy of Mona Lisa Smile to review on Blu-Ray I honestly thought “Oh cool, I haven’t seen that particular British gangster flick in years. I wonder what it’ll look like on Blu-Ray?”. Yeah, in my rushed and confused state during that catch-up period of returning from holiday and getting back into work I mistook the title for the Bob Hoskin’s thriller Mona Lisa - a simple enough mistake, I suppose, and one that led me to receiving the Julia Roberts starring Mona Lisa Smile instead.
So Mona Lisa Smile tells the story of Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts), a free thinking art professor who gets a position teaching Art History at the prestigious, and very traditional, Wellesley College in 1953. Once she gets to the school she discovers that the girls, although incredibly intelligent and full of pontential, seem to be just waiting until they get married and can become housewives.
Feeling that they are not fulfilling their full potential, Katherine starts to try and expand their minds and passions so that they can achieve whatever they want in their lives. This, of course, causes Katherine to clash with the much more conservative school board, but will she abandon her beliefs to keep her teaching position?
So lets look at this. There is no Bob Hoskins. There is no violence. There is no sex or drugs. What, instead, there is is a wonderful central performance from Julia Roberts in the role of Katherine Watson. She truly is the central point of the movie as it’s through her, and her opinions, that we experience the world of Wellesley College and get to know the girls that she teaches and comes to care about, and through her we come to care about the girls as well.
While the movie is set in 1953, to be perfectly honest with you there is a certain amount of Erin Brokovich in Julia Roberts performance of Katherine Watson which, while not a problem, did make me wonder just how accurate her views and opinions at the time were. But, as the main character of the movie, she is never short of watchable and at all times is great in the role.
Making up the mainstay of the rest of the cast are a four younger female actresses we have become used to seeing on our screens of recent years. We have Kirsten Dunst in the role of Betty Warren, Julia Stiles in the role of Joan Brandwyn, Maggie Gyllenhaal in the role of Giselle Levy and Ginnifer Goodwin in the role of Connie Baker. Now, it has to be said, Julia Stiles has never really made that much of an impression on me before, Ginnifer Goodwin was a complete unknown to me (but if you watch Robot Chicken you might well recognise her voice or if you watched Big Love on the TV she may well be familiar to you) and Maggie Gyllenhaal is always a dependable actress. Which leaves Kirsten Dunst.
I’ll be honest with you, I really don’t rate her as an actress. I’m sure she has her fans, hell she must do as she keeps on getting work, but I’m not one of them. Saying that, though, her performance in this movie is actually really good! I don’t know if it’s because she is playing a pretty unlikable character, so not liking her as an actress doesn’t cause any problems, or if it’s just because I totally bought her as the bitchy Betty but whatever the reason I didn’t feel like ramming my foot through the TV screen whenever she was on it - which is always a plus!
What this means, is that the supporting cast in the movie, including the rest of the actors and actresses like Dominic West and Juliet Stevenson give great performances.
The director, Mike Newell (who is responsible for movies like Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, Pushing Tin and the forthcoming Prince Of Persia) imbues the movie with a heart and delivers a slow but ultimately rewarding cinematic experience.
As this is the Blu-Ray release, the visuals of the movie look superb. In high definition the countryside that Wellesley College is set in looks fantastic and the college buildings themselves are shot with a lovely perspective that is fully brought to life in HD and the audio more than matches it. The movie is a very quiet, subtle affair and the Dolby TrueHD soundtrack is more than up to the task of pushing the soundtrack and dialogue to your ears. Obviously, it isn’t exactly pushing the audio boundaries of the format, but at least it sounds good.
Special Features
Art Forum: (6 minutes 30s) The main cast of the movie, except for Julia Roberts, discuss the artwork used in the movie, what art means to them personally & how they had to change their views on art while making the movie. Diverting, in some ways, but essentially throw away fluff.
College Then & Now: (14 minutes) The main cast, this time including Julia Roberts, discuss the differences between women’s lives in 1953 compared to now, intercut with footage from the movie, genuine 1950’s footage and statistics from the time. Quite interesting, from a historical viewpoint, & it further serves to cement the movie in its time.
What Women Wanted: 1953: (10 minutes) Another “talking heads” documentary where cast & crew discuss the political climate in 1953 as applied to women. Once again, this is interesting from a historical viewpoint but not very much information about the movie is included.
While this is not the most exciting movie, either in content or visuals as far as the Blu-Ray format is concerned, it is an uplifting and ultimately interesting one. Maybe not one for all tastes, but if you enjoy a good drama then this is most definately worth a look, even if the lack of extras do let it down somewhat. Maybe not an essential purchase but thanks mainly to some wonderful central performances from the cast it’s certainly worth a look.
8 Responses to “[BLU-RAY Review] MONA LISA SMILE”
****ing hell, talk about the short end of the stick! I get sent FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL and OUTPOST. You get sent this!
Three “popcorns”? Hmmm, is that for the blue-ray or the movie itself? Maybe separate ratings need to be considered in this case coz there’s blu ray discs out there that are worth “five popcorns” but as a film barely worth “two”.
I could imagine this is a “three popcorn” disc and a “two popcorn” film!
No, it was for both. I enjoyed the film, what can I say?
“I’m a semi-Streisand for liking the film!”
That would be a start!
I am not afraid to enjoy a “chick flick” every once in awhile. As long as I don’t start wanting to watch them instead of a zombie movie then I think it’s ok.
Hey, I’m a big fan of the “chick flick” as regular visitors to the site will know. I just have zero tolerance for piss-poor ones. The 27 Dresses and What Happens in Vegas of the world.
I’ve only seen this once when it very first came out on DVD but it smacked of being distinctly mediocre to me AND just a very lazy ‘cliteratti’ version of DEAD POETS SOCIETY (major disappointment that you didn’t pick up on that too and reference it mate!).
But hey, I ain’t knockin you in the least. I think KNOCKED UP is a minor classic, whereas people seem to be making apologies for it these days. I think THE BEST OF TIMES is actually a sublime piece of work and people look at me like I’m friggin’ insane!
The world would be a horribly turgid place if we all liked the same stuff or even had the same opinions on the rubbish shit!
That it would! Just as well the world isn’t like that, eh?
Thank God - then the world would be just like Wales
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