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Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: A classy, handsome and serviceable entertainment that may not change your life, but could help you appreciate how you came to have it. Read more
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: This is a movie with few secrets or surprises, however much it tries to warm hearts or sell eccentricity and idealism. Read more
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: There seems to be an odd idealization, or trivialization, of the characters that makes the movie ultimately unsatisfying. Read more
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: [Y]ou know I know a lot of people who said this thing looks a lot like Dead Poets Society, well, so what? ... Dead Poets Society was a really good film and this is a good film as well. Read more
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Despite some missteps along the way, it turns out to be curiously brave underneath its conventional trappings. Read more
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: The reliable Mike Newell directs Mona Lisa Smile with such assurance that the important moments are never mawkish or dull, and he encourages the women to act with absolute conviction. Read more
Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: [Mona Lisa Smile] lets us spend some quality time with some of the finest actresses in American film as they give energetic life to one of the most radically underrepresented minorities in Hollywood: the intelligent woman. Read more
Elizabeth M. Tamny, Chicago Reader: Roberts asks her students rhetorical questions: What makes art good or bad? Who decides? But the movie answers them as canonically as the syllabus Roberts abandons. Read more
Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: A Dead Poets Society for girls, substituting Roberts' luminosity for Robin Williams' mania. Read more
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Newell ... has crafted a warm, well-paced movie out of a somewhat wan script. Read more
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: A reduction of big, vital '50s issues into a no-carb pudding of ideas by writers Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, directed (as if by a Martian landed at a Seven Sisters college) by Mike Newell. Read more
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Such a mixed-up child, but not without worthy intentions and glimmers of realized potential -- sorry, but I just can't bring myself to come down too hard. Read more
Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: For a movie that superficially encourages free thinking, each plot development is strictly formulaic. Read more
Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: What makes the movie seem crass is its refusal to present (or even to see) more than one side of any given issue. Read more
Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: There are a few reasons to enjoy the film, namely its likable cast, its noble aim -- of dramatizing one of the many small steps that led to the overhaul of women's higher education -- and its unexpected ability to surprise you. Read more
John Anderson, Newsday: Sadly, the predictability factor of Mona is simply off the charts -- you can almost recite the dialogue before it rolls off the students' well-developed palates, and the course it follows is a well-rutted road. Read more
Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: Everything about this movie seems off-key, starting with its title. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The movie is only interesting intermittently, and the period details don't feel right. Read more
Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: This is not a feminist movie. It even feels at times like a step back, partly because the cliches are so tired. Read more
Stephen Holden, New York Times: A star-watcher's guilty pleasure. Read more
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: I must say that I enjoyed Mona Lisa Smile enormously, in large part because of the sheer virtuosity of the largely female cast. Read more
Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: When was the last time you saw a mainstream movie with big, flashy stars that featured a fairly sophisticated discussion of the nature of art? Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The characters involve us, we sympathize with their dreams and despair of their matrimonial tunnel vision, and at the end we are relieved that we listened to Miss Watson and became the wonderful people who we are today. Read more
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: In terms of the gap between the movie it's trying to be and the movie it actually is, Mona Lisa Smile is in many ways indefensible. Yet for all its problems, it's satisfyingly movielike. Read more
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It's hard to believe Katherine could become a beloved teacher or inspire her students, and in the case of Mona Lisa Smile that's the same as saying it's hard to believe the movie. Read more
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Roberts shows a new maturity in the role of a mentor to a flock of younger women. Read more
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: [Roberts] is an anachronistic pop-feminist on a mission. Read more
Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: With Katherine's lectures on the dead-artists society, the movie seems to tout rebellious originality. In fact, it's a lesson in emotional conformity. Read more
Claudia Puig, USA Today: Rather than being a fascinating exploration of a much more constrained time in our social history, the film simply feels anachronistic. Read more
David Rooney, Variety: Roberts gives the character her regular mix of high spirits and vulnerability, which never fully gels with the idealistic, savvy woman. Read more
Jessica Winter, Village Voice: Busybody Katherine appears more than simply angry with the mid-century sexism that her charges have so seamlessly internalized -- she seems utterly unplugged from reality in 1953. Read more