Mona Lisa Smile
Short description
Katherine Watson arrives at Wellesley College in 1953 to teach art history at one of the most prestigious women's schools in the United States. A free-spirited graduate of the University of California, she expects her students to be among the country's brightest and to use their education as a path to independence. She soon finds instead an institution shaped by tradition and conformity, where the faculty holds conservative views and the students, including Betty Warren and Joan Brandwyn, are expected to marry rather than pursue careers. Determined to challenge these expectations, Katherine pushes her class to question the lives laid out for them, a conflict that unsettles the college and forces her to reconsider her own choices.
Mike Newell directed the film, which sits between Pushing Tin and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in the sequence of his features. Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal wrote the screenplay, and Julia Roberts stars as Katherine, with Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Ginnifer Goodwin among the students, and Dominic West as Bill Dunbar. Produced by Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios and Red Om Films, it had a budget of 65 million dollars and took 141 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.6 out of 10 from around 99,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.9 out of 10 from far fewer. A critics' rating of 5 out of 10 from 149 reviews places it below both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Shortly before the premiere, the film's producers organized a special screening for the 1954 Wellesley College graduating class, but they began pointing out numerous inaccuracies made by the filmmakers. Specifically, students were not allowed to attend classes wearing pearl necklaces.
- The film received a lot of negative reviews due to obvious errors and inaccuracies. 'Modern Art' had been taught at Wellesley since the 1920s. There were no curfews or set lights-out times in the dormitories. Furthermore, the film portrays the college as politically conservative, although in reality Wellesley was the first college in the US to hire an African American professor to its sociology department in the early 1950s.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
