Movie · 2003 · Drama, History, Romance · 1h 57m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 4.1/10 (299K ratings)
They had everything. She showed them more.
Overview
Katherine Watson is a recent UCLA graduate hired to teach art history at the prestigious all-female Wellesley College, in 1953. Determined to confront the outdated mores of society and the institution that embraces them, Katherine inspires her traditional students, including Betty and Joan, to challenge the lives they are expected to lead.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.1/10
IMDb: 6.6/10
Letterboxd: 3.67/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 33%
Metacritic: 45
TMDB: 6.9/10
Director
Mike Newell
Production
Revolution Studios, Red Om Films
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, Topher Grace, Lily Lodge, Jordan Bridges, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Christopher Braden
Curator Review
Verdict
A polished, accessible prestige drama with strong period detail and an appealing ensemble, but it simplifies its feminist arguments and often plays like a tidy inspirational speech rather than a fully sharp critique. It works best as a warm, actor-driven campus story with a progressive streak, less so if you want deeper historical complexity.
Best for
viewers who like inspirational teacher-student dramas
fans of early-2000s prestige ensembles
people interested in women’s history and gender roles
audiences who enjoy polished period settings and emotional catharsis
Skip if
you want a more rigorous feminist or historical drama
you’re allergic to earnest, message-forward storytelling
you prefer subtle character studies over inspirational arcs
you expect the film to fully live up to its queer subtext and social critique
Overview
Mona Lisa Smile is a glossy, emotionally direct campus drama that uses 1950s Wellesley as a battleground for changing ideas about women’s lives. Julia Roberts gives the film its center as a teacher trying to widen her students’ horizons, and the ensemble around her helps the movie feel lively even when the script leans on familiar inspirational beats.
Worth noting
What lingers most is the tension between conformity and self-determination, especially in the students’ different responses to marriage, ambition, and identity. The film is often remembered for its subtext as much as its text, and that ambiguity gives it a modern afterlife that the movie itself only partially earns.
Bottom line
As a piece of mainstream studio filmmaking, it’s attractive, accessible, and easy to watch, with enough emotional payoff to satisfy. But it also smooths over the messier edges of its own politics, so the result is more charming than incisive.
Top Letterboxd reviews
gillian (3.5★) · 10675 likes
did someone call for an all-female dead poets society bc i definitely did
lucilocket (4.5★) · 9448 likes
everyone in this movie was a lesbian. everyone. they were all lesbians.
lucyliuser (3.5★) · 5735 likes
"Mona Lisa Smile is a queer film" I say into the mic.
The crowd boos. I begin to walk off in shame, when a voice speaks and commands silence from the room.
"He's right" they say. I look for the owner of the voice. There in the 5th row stands: Julia Roberts herself
Joel Westberg (3★) · 5423 likes
surprised there wasn't a scene where the students all stand up and say "o katherine my katherine"
Em (3.5★) · 4210 likes
Vanilla white feminism, but I’m a sucker for female friendships and that all-consuming love that female students have for their female teachers.