Mona Lisa Smile
June 2004 Reviewed by: Josh Barber Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Wow, who knew that Dead Poets Society was screaming for a remake? Fans of overblown period school dramas take heart, because those poets are all crawling right back out of their graves (or at least rolling over in them) for Mona Lisa Smile.

Julia Roberts plays an art history professor who has come to Wellesley College in the early 1950s. The students whose minds she hopes to open are still under the impression that they have to do what is expected of them. They expect to graduate, marry a nice man, and immediately set up as homemaker and mother, becoming a generation of well-read housewives who can discuss philosophy while they do the ironing.

Shocked by her students' limited view of their potential, Roberts tries to enliven them, to get them to see that there is more available to them than just 2.2 kids, three square meals, and the four walls of a house. She wants them to realize that they can have and do whatever they want. But what if they do want the life that she finds so shocking?

Mona Lisa Smile was in and out of theaters before most people even realized that it existed, so if you missed it at the matinees, you can now bring it home on DVD.

Picture quality is very good: Director Mike Newell often presents a slightly gauzy look at the world of these girls, and the DVD captures that haze well. This is not a disc error, because there are just as many sharp and crisp portions, and the disc does an admirable job of keeping up with Newell's camera work. The sound quality is fine as well, considering that this is a dialogue-driven movie. There's plenty of environmental ambience from all the speakers, but they really get a chance to show off for the soundtrack: a collection of '50s songs covered by current artists such as Tori Amos, Harry Connick Jr., and Macy Gray.

Extras are light. "Art Forum" is not, as the name would imply, a look at the various works shown during the film. Rather, we get to listen to the cast talk about art, and it amounts to what each person likes or dislikes. The only notable exception is Marcia Gay Harden, who starred in Pollack and actually manages to provide some insight about a painter's impact on the art world. "College Then and Now" combines archival footage, onscreen trivia facts, and a few interviews with behind-the-scenes footage and a few outtakes. The trivia is interesting, if just to see how far we have grown in 50 years. "What Women Wanted: 1953" shows vintage commercials and advertisements and discusses the evolution of Wellesley's annual hoop-roll. Finally, we get a music video of Elton John's "The Heart of Every Girl" and a promotion for the soundtrack album.

Maybe I am just too young, but the idea that anyone would blindly let someone tell them what they could or could not do with their own life is entirely alien to me. Dead Poets Society and its clones never appealed all that much. Characters complaining about choices that were entirely within their control were just irritating. However, if you want to see the types of attitudes that your mother or grandmother had to overcome to get you where you are today, Mona Lisa Smile delivers.

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