45
Metascore
40 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 60The New YorkerDavid DenbyThe New YorkerDavid DenbyThe fight against traditionalism has long been won, so the movie’s indignation feels superfluous, but Mike Newell’s direction is solid, the period décor and costumes are a sombre riot of chintz and pleated skirts, and the movie has an air of measured craft and intelligence. [22 & 29 December 2003, p. 166]
- 50The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttRote characterizations and a trite, even condescending, attitude toward that era's misguided mores robs the film of the satiric punch Todd Haynes delivered in "Far From Heaven."
- 50ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliThe most likely facial expression to be elicited by Mona Lisa Smile is a grimace.
- 50Dallas ObserverRobert WilonskyDallas ObserverRobert WilonskyYou will leave Mona Lisa Smile with only the slightest hint of the grin every slick studio movie gives you--the grin of reassurance and superiority. But you will not be changed, only out about eight bucks.
- 40TimeRichard CorlissTimeRichard CorlissMaybe Wellesley isn't the only injured party here. Can an audience sue for cruel and edifying punishment?
- 40VarietyDavid RooneyVarietyDavid RooneyAn appealing female cast gives the hollowly formulaic Mona Lisa Smile more dignity than it perhaps deserves, yet it's Julia Roberts in an ill-suited starring role that represents one of the film's chief shortcomings.
- 40New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter RainerNew York Magazine (Vulture)Peter RainerDirector Mike Newell and screenwriters Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal should have uncorseted their own imaginations. The girls on display are all tightly stereotyped.
- 40NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenNewell, no hack, tries not to milk the cliches shamelessly, and that may be the movie's final undoing. Lacking the courage of its own vulgarity, Mona Lisa Smile is as tepid as old bathwater.
- 40Village VoiceJessica WinterVillage VoiceJessica WinterMona Lisa Smile's only mysteries are the result of frenzied corner-cutting as Newell & Co. speed through the last reel, an exhausting cram session of hair-trigger speechifying and identity transformations bordering on the science-fictional.
- 25Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumIt's a gussied-up sorority-of-rising-stars project produced, I fantasize, by baby-boomer studio guys whose younger spouses articulately defend a woman's right to stay home and raise the kids.