Just a smirk for Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa Smile
Mike Newell
Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Marcia Gay Harden, Dominic West
15.
After so many excellent performances, Roberts takes a few paces backwards with this merely so-so story, playing an art history teacher who fetches up in the conservative college where finding the right husband is at the top of the class.
Ms Roberts is, of course, that well-known breath of fresh air, come to blow today through the restrictive corridors of yesterday and win everybody over to her modern thinking.
Oh dear!
It is one thing to gather together so many talented actresses, altogether another to give them ill-fitting roles and a poor screenplay. There is nothing about this film which is original or even mildly interesting. It is a monumental example of appalling casting.
It is a film going nowhere and a film that at the very least questions our Julia's role choices.
2/5
