Hi Corinth-
About Mona Lisa Smile- I was a graduate of Wellesley College more years ago than I care to remember, and there was a private screening for us alums in London just before the premiere where we had the chance to give Mike Newell, the director, a rough time about what he had come up with.
He did make the point that he was only showing a snapshop of the place at a certain time. So you got to see Julia Roberts only in the Art History department, although in reality there would have been at least 6 members of the departmental teaching staff (BTW- my sister, who also went there, was an art history grad, and had an inspirational teacher of that type). There is always a teacher who makes a difference, particularly in such a small community with no more than 2000 students on campus at one time, where there is accessibility to staff.
I liked the movie mostly from the nostalgia point of view, seeing the familiar buildings, etc. (although some of the interiors were filmed at Columbia University in NYC).
I thought that Julia Roberts was definitely miscast for the role, and I think one can figure out way ahead of time that she'd either be for the high jump or quit, but help a few of the girls along the way. There was also criticism that the only male character you saw was a bit of a weakling in terms of strength of character. So ultimately, although feminism and career vs. home were the issue, it was really more the stories of the individual girls taken separately that were of interest to me, and their resolution.
BTW- girls were already wearing jeans around campus in 1955, one of the grads of that year told us about it at the screening! So not necessarily twinsets and pearls as portrayed.
