I am not a big fan of Julia Roberts. In fact, I try to avoid her more often than I try to see her. That was one of the reasons I skipped “Mona Lisa Smile” when it was in the movies. Recenlty though I saw a trailer again and decided to get the film on DVD.
Directed by: Mike Newell
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Cast: Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ginnifer Goodwin, Dominic West, Juliet Stevenson, Marcia Gay Harden, John Slattery, Marian Seldes, Donna Mitchell, Terence Rigby, Jennie Eisenhower, Leslie Lyles, Laura Allen
IMDB raintg: 6.1
My rating: 5.0 [rate 5.0]
One word: disappointment. There were a few nice ideas in the film, which didn’t get enough momentum and the whole thing went down to the romantic drama drain. Again. It is sad to see such a waste of so much potential.
I mean, how often do you have any philosophical and sociological issues brought up in mainstream movies with mainstream celebrities? Not often I tell you. This one could have had a good swing around of young college women studying in expensive collegues just to become married and “stay married”. The issue was as important in the 1950-ies as it is now. Or the ancient question of why we are here and what will coming generations say about us – how deeper can you go?
But it seemed that the makers of this film got scared in the process and didn’t even want to think about some possible answers to the questions that they were raising. That’s why the raising of questions was very fast and silent.
As it is, the film is a two hour pointless waste of time with some cliche Julia Roberts shots (crying, sitting on the bank of the lake, walking in the park, etc).