Roberts' attitude out of place in this girl-power period piece

As artistic achievements go, Mona Lisa Smile is strictly a paint-by-numbers affair. No shading. Little in the way of perspective. To call it one-dimensional would be an act of charity.

The place is Wellesley College, the time is 1953, the bohemian is Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts), tall poppy in a meadow of bourgeois shrinking violets.

Katherine is an art-history lecturer newly imported from California. Her earlobes dangling turquoise, she lopes into the classroom only to be one-upped by whip-smart conformists wearing cashmere twinsets and pearl studs. Humbled by her students' encyclopedic knowledge but frustrated that they don't challenge received wisdom, Katherine provides the tools for them to do so.

She offers them media theory of 2003 vintage so they can deconstruct the 1953 dream of getting married and see that it is bogus. Better her students should be freethinkers like Katherine, who runs from intimacy and toward a Ph.D. like a sprinter in the either/or Olympics.

Hobbled by the limited imaginations of screenwriters Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal (bards credited with the recent remakes of Planet of the Apes and The Beverly Hillbillies), Katherine uses today's consciousness to judge 1953 collegiennes. Not quite the bull in the china shop, Katherine is the feminist in the finishing school in this film's belittling characterization of a premier women's college.

See Katherine roll her eyes at those who take poise and elocution seriously, like Nancy Abbey (Marcia Gay Harden, unbelievably moving). See Katherine snort at the marital aspirations of the class bitch, Betty Warren (Kirsten Dunst in a thankless role). See Katherine look askance at party girl Giselle Levy (sublime Maggie Gyllenhaal), her competition for the attentions of the blandly dreamy Italian professor (Dominic West).

Only Joan Brandwyn (Julia Stiles, so irresistible in crimson lipstick that it should be illegal) earns Katherine's approbation. This is because Joan, like Katherine, aspires to professional achievement.

What's most insulting about the conception of this film from Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral) is that for all of its piety about women having the right to make their own lives, Katherine is remarkably intolerant of those who choose a path other than hers. It's hard to tell whether this is coming from Katherine or the actress who plays her as if bringing feminism to unenlightened socialites.

Roberts so overwhelms the movie with so much wisenheimer Erin Brockovich attitude that you want to haul her before the Academic Senate and censure her for anachronism.

Despite Roberts' strident turn, there are a handful of excellent performances in the misbegotten film. Along with Harden, Gyllenhaal and Stiles, Juliet Stevenson is startlingly fine as a campus doctor who gets into trouble for prescribing birth control.

I had high hopes for this film, imagining it might be the distaff version of that indictment of '50s conformity, The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit. But Mona Lisa Smile is no The Woman in the Pink Cashmere Twinset. It's the weak-tea version of the one about charismatic teacher Jean Brodie who pushes her "girls" to break the mold. Call it The Prime of Miss Julia Roberts. And call it a day.

Contact movie critic Carrie Rickey at 215-854-5402 or crickey@phillynews.com.

Mona Lisa Smile * 1/2 (out of four stars)

Produced by Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Paul Schiff and Deborah Schindler, directed by Mike Newell, written by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, photography by Anastas Michos, music by Rachel Portman, distributed by Columbia Pictures.

Running time: 1 hour, 55 mins.

Katherine Watson. . . Julia Roberts

Betty Warren. . . Kirsten Dunst

Joan Brandwyn. . . Julia Stiles

Giselle Levy. . . Maggie Gyllenhaal

Nancy Abbey. . . Marcia Gay Harden

Parent's guide: PG-13 (sexual candor, mature themes)

Playing at: area theaters