Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Mona Lisa Smile (2003) - Supporting performances and production elevate gender inequality drama

11/08/2020

Mona Lisa Smile (2003) - Supporting performances and production elevate gender inequality drama

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Massachusetts Movie of the Year

Four distinguished actresses in 1950s garbs look at something unseen, - perhaps Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa painting, - on this poster for Mike Newell's Mona Lisa Smile

A privileged girls' school in New England in the 1950s gets a new art teacher, who challenges the young women's perspective on art and gives them a critical mind towards their future as housewives, - or possibly more independent individuals.

Mona Lisa Smile is written by Lawrence Konner (Mercury Rising (1998)) and Mark Rosenthal (The Jewel of the Nile (1985)) and directed by great British filmmaker Mike Newell (Comedy Workshop: Love and Maud Carver (1964).

The title refers to the famously mysterious 'maybe-smile' on Leonarda da Vinci's Mona Lisa (1503-1506) painting exhibited today in Paris' Louvre museum, as the film thematizes women's opportunities for trying to create a (possibly) happier life for themselves. Newell's film lives especially due to a plethora of strong, engaged performances: Marcia Gay Harden (A Cat in Paris (2010)), Maggie Gyllenhaal (River of Fundament (2014)), Ginnifer Goodwin (Electric City (2012, TV-series short)), and Kirsten Dunst (Marie Antoinette (2006)) not least create compelling characters here. Julia Roberts' (Erin Brockovich (2000)) character's outbreaks against the confines of the institution of marriage and more, and something about her essence and smile, don't seem entirely authentic. Roberts gets dropped into the 1950s here, and she stands out. She isn't bad in Mona Lisa Smile, but the performance wouldn't rank in a top 10 of her best turns.

The story is uplifting, circling the century's slow changes for women, and the production is grand with fantastic costume work.

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) - Newell straddles too much in fair action-adventure

2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Love in the Time of Cholera (2007) - Newell's Márquez adaptation is a disaster

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Donnie Brasco (1997) - Newell's fantastic, authentic gangster tale

Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) - Newell, Curtis and a stellar cast's romcom triumph

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 72.3 mil. $

Box office: 141.3 mil. $

= Flop (returned 1.95 times its cost)

[Mona Lisa Smile was released 19 December (USA, Italy) and runs 119 minutes. Shooting took place in Massachusetts, Arizona, New York, Connecticut and in California, including San Francisco from September 2002 - January 2003. Roberts received the biggest payday for a female actor in Hollywood history up to the point at 25 mil. $. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, to an 11.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd week and grossed 63.8 mil. $ (45.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 13.1 mil. $ (9.3 %) and the UK with 8.1 mil. $ (5.7 %). The film was nominated for a Golden Globe. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Newell returned with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). Roberts returned in Freedom: A History of US (2003, TV series documentary) and theatrically in Closer (2004). Mona Lisa Smile is rotten at 34 % with a 4.93/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Mona Lisa Smile?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

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Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Ray Liotta has died

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Philip Baker Hall has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (14-24)