A movie to Smile about

From watching the trailers, Mona Lisa Smile looks to be the female version of 1989's Dead Poets' Society—a freethinking teacher, rich college students and a carpe diem moral to boot. The one hour and 57 minutes of Mona Lisa Smile's unforgettable cinematography and exceptional character development, however, are far from being a mere imitation.

Mona Lisa Smile, directed by Mike Newell of the up-and-coming Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, is inspirational from the opening credits, when Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts) arrives in snowy Massachusetts as the new art history teacher at the all-female Wellesley College. The year is 1953, and Watson's progressive, liberal nature immediately clashes with the ideology of the ultra-conservative student population.

Just as Wellesley's suave Italian teacher, Bill Dunbar (Dominic West), explains, surviving employment at Wellesley is a simple matter of "not getting noticed." Unfortunately for Watson, blending in is not one of her strong suits. From the first time she holds class, there is a power struggle between Watson and the girls, some of whom are exasperatingly aware of their own wealth, intelligence and beauty.

Despite their enormous academic potential, Wellesley girls are taught to look no further than pleasing their future husbands, "setting up house" and being stereotypically-charming homemakers for fulfillment in life. The girls take classes on how to curtsy properly, how to set the table with style and how to treat their married lives with the utmost class—without ever taking off their pearls and white gloves.

Before the tension between Watson and her students has heated to a satisfactorily frustrating boil, however, Watson is already finding ways to break through their uppity facades.

Upon discovering the radiant new teacher, Dunbar takes it upon himself to force his way into Watson's life whenever possible. Intrigued, Watson is enchanted enough to momentarily disregard the existence of her boyfriend back in California. By the time that the movie's fourth Mona Lisa reference is snuck in, Watson and Dunbar are more than involved.

Just as the highly anticipated marriage plans of two of the girls are in the works, Watson's students begin to embrace her free-spirited lifestyle, Watson urges student Joan Brandwyn (Julia Stiles) to apply to Yale Law School against the norm of society, and Watson's abstract teaching styles are called into question by the administration—a conflict that can only be resolved by an emotional ending.

The true art of Mona Lisa Smile is that each character is given their time in the spotlight, preventing any of these lively characters from going unnoticed. Though the scene in which the students are first introduced paints them as near carbon copies of each other, individual vignettes later accompany each of the main characters on the rollercoaster rides of their respective lives, deepening our understanding of their stories.

Watson's fiercest antagonist is Betty Warren (Kirsten Dunst). Warren repeatedly rejects Watson's avant-garde views on life, throwing cold comments in Watson's direction whenever possible and writing a bitter article about Watson in Wellesley's student newspaper, of which she is the editor. Partway through the movie, Warren marries a promising young man and transitions from raising her hand for every question in Watson's class to proudly showing off her new laundry room.

Giselle Levy (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is the party girl in the group whose habits of drinking, dating older men and promiscuity would make her come across as trashy in any other movie. But because of the superb scripting of Mona Lisa Smile, Levy's character is more three-dimensional than many of the others and glimpses into the true girl hidden behind these wild behaviors are frequently shown.

Amidst the sea of female faces that are ever-present in Mona Lisa Smile, Roberts manages to steal the show, that characteristic twinkle never leaving her eyes. Her elegance graces the screen with the same poise that catapulted all her other movies (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Ocean's Eleven) to immediate popularity.

Roberts' outstanding performance is accompanied by the movie's true charmer—Constance "Connie" Baker (Ginnifer Goodwin). Connie is endlessly spunky, with enough spirit for all the girls at Wellesley. The target of many of Warren's affronts, Connie is easy to sympathize with, and her bubbly nature keeps the audience rooting for her as she falls in love for the first time.

Stiles is the weakest link in the cast. Stiles' approach to her 1950s character is delivered bearing the burden of an overdone, snobby accent that comes off as foolish. Her affect rarely changes, nor is her acting any more charismatic than it was in O or Save the Last Dance.

Mona Lisa Smile is visually stunning, placing the characters against the beautiful landscapes and architecture of Wellesley as Watson searches for her sense of self within the rigid social structure that surrounds her.

Even though the words roll off Dunbar's tongue with great ease, you might find it significantly harder to bid a simple "Ciao, Mona Lisa" to this glorious movie when the ending credits begin their descent down the screen.