November 30, 2024 • 8 mins
"Mona Lisa Smile" is a universal film that aimed towards people who thnk they have their futures written in stone. A film directed by Mike Newell, stars Julia Roberts as this free-spirited teacher who travels over to the east coast to teach at an institution where women are guided to be submissive wives/partners. This was set in the mid-'50s. I never really focused on Roberts in films but this one really swept me to a point. I love her character as Katherine Ann Watson. She doesn't let anyone really dictate her life and style. The film is not about style but about how to hold on to your own and that you're not confined anywhere especially if you have personal goals set. I did like that they did a good job balancing the principle characters' dilemmas which is difficult to do in screenwriting, period. The plot is all right but I didn't like how they tackled it where it was an examination of the women in the film rather than playing high stakes. I didn't mind how it played out for Roberts' character but in connection to the other characters that support her morals & goals as a film, was weak and needed more work to established.
Three out of four tokes.
Three out of four tokes.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good morning, and this is Morning Real. If I see it,
I review it. It's a two to three or four
or one hundred and eighty minute or so podcasts of
films that I review, of all nationalities, from black and
white to technic color, from film to digital. Today, I
want to talk about a film that I've never thought
I would see, but it just keeps showing up about
(00:24):
max feed, So why not let's talk about this film.
Let's talk about Mona Lisa's Smile. Yes, Mona Lisa Smile.
It's a movie about art, right, No, it's more about art,
it's about life. It's about redefining goals, redefining roles, and
just being your own free spirit itself, no matter where
(00:49):
you are and where you're from, no matter what time
of year. It's a cool film. So this film is
about Julia Roberts. Right, she plays as his teacher. Right,
she comes into this it's like pretty you know, conservative,
very traditional, very Caucasian, really, because I didn't see a
(01:10):
lot of diversity in that film. But you know, when
I saw it, it was late. It's those films were like,
you know, I'm just gonna pop it in. It's like
two am or whatever. One am, I don't know twelve
he's popping. You see what happens right, and it's not
your basic film. Really, I gotta I gotta give this
film a lot of credit. Directed by Mike Newell, written
(01:32):
by Lawrence Connor and Mark Rosenthal, Produced by Elaine Goldsmith,
Thomas Derrebah Schindler, and Paul Skiff. Starring Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunns,
Julia Styles, Maggie Jillen Huh Woo Woo, Dominic West, Juliet Stevenson, Marshall,
Gay Harden, and a couple of other people too, such
(01:53):
as Toefer Grace. I believe he plays Eric in that
seventies show. He plays the Dick. Cinematography by Anastas Micos,
edited by Mick Audsley, Music by Rachel Portman. Production companies
Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios and Red Films Productions. This film
(02:14):
came out in December nineteenth, two thousand and three. Yes
dates this film as twenty plus years old, and it
feels fresh when you look at the film. It's set
in a certain space and time right set in the fifties,
the mid fifties, you know, on the eastern side of
Eastern side of the US, right, And Julia Robins arrives
(02:37):
at this school and it's a school of women, really,
and it's a school that prepares you to be like
a wife. It prepares you to be the most maternal,
submissive person that you could be, especially at that time,
you know. And Julia Roberts was kind of like one
of the few women in that film who do not
(03:01):
like really conform in those ways. You know, they're their
own person and to everybody else it's like a threat
and it's crazy. And Kirsten Dust in this film, man, dude,
it's it's cool to see, uh, Like, at this time,
Kristen Dust has not done a lot of movies, but
she's obviously breaking into herself as an act a female actor,
(03:24):
especially in Hollywood, and these are one of the films
where like she does kind of break out. Like in
this character. You know, she plays a very plays a bitch, dude,
I swear, like, she plays this like chick who's very entitled.
Obviously her parents are wealthy, and she's happy. She has
a boyfriend who or a fiance rather who's rich and
(03:46):
has a great job and she's like excited for marriage, right,
and everybody else around her is a little bit less
beneath her. I guess, you know, socially wise, or at
least in her head her logic, right, But nah, dude,
Julie Roberts comes in and changes all those students' lives
in the matter of the school year that it inhabits. Right.
(04:11):
What I like about this film is is the plot.
It's a cool plot. It's it's not the best plot ever,
but it's pretty safe and sound. It's more about the
analyzation of how women change, and how how some women
who are just not in the norm right, like who's
(04:31):
very free spirited, not conservative, who is not confined confed.
She's not confined man, she can do whatever she wants.
She doesn't let society dictate what she can do or
what she's worth. Really, and a lot of these women
in the film are in those institutions where like your
worth is already set matched and like done, you know,
(04:53):
and it shouldn't be that way. You should have your
cake and eat it too, you know. You shouldn't just
be the one baking the cake. You should like eat it,
you know. So Julia Roberts's teacher or professor character who's
an art professor or our teacher whatever pretty much teaches
their her students about life through art. You know, like
you gotta see beyond the image, Like you don't just
(05:16):
look at the image. You there's something there. You know,
it's not just random. It's not just something that like
you just sit on a hill and you're like, all right, boom,
here it is. You know, there's You're putting your whole
self into it. You know, like an image starts with nothing.
It's just a blank canvas, and you put everything in there,
and you're practically putting yourself in there somewhere some matter.
(05:39):
I like the characters in this film. Everybody is a
little bit different. They have their own personalities, and I
like how because it's very difficult for a screenwriter to
write a film where there's like like up to like
seven characters with their with their own like dilemmas in
this film, and they all play out pret well, especially
(06:00):
during the third act. I like the third act pretty
pretty pretty much. I like it a lot. It really
sets everyone's character's dilemmas in order. It's it's kind of
sad to see Julia Roberts go, you know, like but
it kind of has to be that way, because that
was pretty much her whole goal, especially in the beginning
of the first act, like her whole her whole goal
(06:22):
was to like make a difference, and she pretty much did,
and it's pretty straightforward. The romance is pretty cool in
the film. It's it's fucked up to see how people
got to learn the hard way in life, you know,
when it comes to like relationships and wanting to get
married and all that stuff. It's it's sad to see
(06:44):
how people get screwed right in front of you and
there's kind of like nothing you can do about it,
and especially because they're being a fucking asshole to you,
it's like you got to kind of watch it happen.
But the capassion is there, and I think that's what
Julia Roberts had try to teach these these students is
to like not only just be yourself and like follow
your dreams and follow your ambitions and listen to yourself really,
(07:08):
you know, but be compassionate at the same time help
one another because that's all we got. We just got
each other. And it's universal. At that point, it's no
longer a woman film or woman led film. It's a
universal message to everybody. So the thing I didn't really
like about the film, honestly, it's it's, you know, it's
a basic plot. You know, it's kind of a happy ending,
(07:30):
and it's a bittersweet ending really, but it's it goes
towards the happy side of things, and like, you know, life,
you grow up, man, you know, growing like just graduating
from a institution isn't the end of the road. Sometimes
it's the beginning of new things to come. My name
is Ray Salazar. Following me on Morning Shop Films ig
(07:51):
YouTube Morning Shop Films, I'll see you as the website
you can see all kinds of visuals, all kinds of
merchy stuff. Check it out if you have the time.
Love one another, Thank you,
Good morning, and this is Morning Real. If I see it,
I review it. It's a two to three or four
or one hundred and eighty minute or so podcasts of
films that I review, of all nationalities, from black and
white to technic color, from film to digital. Today, I
want to talk about a film that I've never thought
I would see, but it just keeps showing up about
(00:24):
max feed, So why not let's talk about this film.
Let's talk about Mona Lisa's Smile. Yes, Mona Lisa Smile.
It's a movie about art, right, No, it's more about art,
it's about life. It's about redefining goals, redefining roles, and
just being your own free spirit itself, no matter where
(00:49):
you are and where you're from, no matter what time
of year. It's a cool film. So this film is
about Julia Roberts. Right, she plays as his teacher. Right,
she comes into this it's like pretty you know, conservative,
very traditional, very Caucasian, really, because I didn't see a
(01:10):
lot of diversity in that film. But you know, when
I saw it, it was late. It's those films were like,
you know, I'm just gonna pop it in. It's like
two am or whatever. One am, I don't know twelve
he's popping. You see what happens right, and it's not
your basic film. Really, I gotta I gotta give this
film a lot of credit. Directed by Mike Newell, written
(01:32):
by Lawrence Connor and Mark Rosenthal, Produced by Elaine Goldsmith,
Thomas Derrebah Schindler, and Paul Skiff. Starring Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunns,
Julia Styles, Maggie Jillen Huh Woo Woo, Dominic West, Juliet Stevenson, Marshall,
Gay Harden, and a couple of other people too, such
(01:53):
as Toefer Grace. I believe he plays Eric in that
seventies show. He plays the Dick. Cinematography by Anastas Micos,
edited by Mick Audsley, Music by Rachel Portman. Production companies
Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios and Red Films Productions. This film
(02:14):
came out in December nineteenth, two thousand and three. Yes
dates this film as twenty plus years old, and it
feels fresh when you look at the film. It's set
in a certain space and time right set in the fifties,
the mid fifties, you know, on the eastern side of
Eastern side of the US, right, And Julia Robins arrives
(02:37):
at this school and it's a school of women, really,
and it's a school that prepares you to be like
a wife. It prepares you to be the most maternal,
submissive person that you could be, especially at that time,
you know. And Julia Roberts was kind of like one
of the few women in that film who do not
(03:01):
like really conform in those ways. You know, they're their
own person and to everybody else it's like a threat
and it's crazy. And Kirsten Dust in this film, man, dude,
it's it's cool to see, uh, Like, at this time,
Kristen Dust has not done a lot of movies, but
she's obviously breaking into herself as an act a female actor,
(03:24):
especially in Hollywood, and these are one of the films
where like she does kind of break out. Like in
this character. You know, she plays a very plays a bitch, dude,
I swear, like, she plays this like chick who's very entitled.
Obviously her parents are wealthy, and she's happy. She has
a boyfriend who or a fiance rather who's rich and
(03:46):
has a great job and she's like excited for marriage, right,
and everybody else around her is a little bit less
beneath her. I guess, you know, socially wise, or at
least in her head her logic, right, But nah, dude,
Julie Roberts comes in and changes all those students' lives
in the matter of the school year that it inhabits. Right.
(04:11):
What I like about this film is is the plot.
It's a cool plot. It's it's not the best plot ever,
but it's pretty safe and sound. It's more about the
analyzation of how women change, and how how some women
who are just not in the norm right, like who's
(04:31):
very free spirited, not conservative, who is not confined confed.
She's not confined man, she can do whatever she wants.
She doesn't let society dictate what she can do or
what she's worth. Really, and a lot of these women
in the film are in those institutions where like your
worth is already set matched and like done, you know,
(04:53):
and it shouldn't be that way. You should have your
cake and eat it too, you know. You shouldn't just
be the one baking the cake. You should like eat it,
you know. So Julia Roberts's teacher or professor character who's
an art professor or our teacher whatever pretty much teaches
their her students about life through art. You know, like
you gotta see beyond the image, Like you don't just
(05:16):
look at the image. You there's something there. You know,
it's not just random. It's not just something that like
you just sit on a hill and you're like, all right, boom,
here it is. You know, there's You're putting your whole
self into it. You know, like an image starts with nothing.
It's just a blank canvas, and you put everything in there,
and you're practically putting yourself in there somewhere some matter.
(05:39):
I like the characters in this film. Everybody is a
little bit different. They have their own personalities, and I
like how because it's very difficult for a screenwriter to
write a film where there's like like up to like
seven characters with their with their own like dilemmas in
this film, and they all play out pret well, especially
(06:00):
during the third act. I like the third act pretty
pretty pretty much. I like it a lot. It really
sets everyone's character's dilemmas in order. It's it's kind of
sad to see Julia Roberts go, you know, like but
it kind of has to be that way, because that
was pretty much her whole goal, especially in the beginning
of the first act, like her whole her whole goal
(06:22):
was to like make a difference, and she pretty much did,
and it's pretty straightforward. The romance is pretty cool in
the film. It's it's fucked up to see how people
got to learn the hard way in life, you know,
when it comes to like relationships and wanting to get
married and all that stuff. It's it's sad to see
(06:44):
how people get screwed right in front of you and
there's kind of like nothing you can do about it,
and especially because they're being a fucking asshole to you,
it's like you got to kind of watch it happen.
But the capassion is there, and I think that's what
Julia Roberts had try to teach these these students is
to like not only just be yourself and like follow
your dreams and follow your ambitions and listen to yourself really,
(07:08):
you know, but be compassionate at the same time help
one another because that's all we got. We just got
each other. And it's universal. At that point, it's no
longer a woman film or woman led film. It's a
universal message to everybody. So the thing I didn't really
like about the film, honestly, it's it's, you know, it's
a basic plot. You know, it's kind of a happy ending,
(07:30):
and it's a bittersweet ending really, but it's it goes
towards the happy side of things, and like, you know, life,
you grow up, man, you know, growing like just graduating
from a institution isn't the end of the road. Sometimes
it's the beginning of new things to come. My name
is Ray Salazar. Following me on Morning Shop Films ig
(07:51):
YouTube Morning Shop Films, I'll see you as the website
you can see all kinds of visuals, all kinds of
merchy stuff. Check it out if you have the time.
Love one another, Thank you,
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