Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Not the worst movie out there, If you need to pleasantly kill a couple of hours of your life.This could be a good TV show for teaches. Decent cast, decent lines, decent visual, mostly summer. Little daily life at a decent college. The students are the girls from the decent /rich/ families.The only divination from the total decentness is Maggie's Gyllenhaal young character, however mild enough if to compare with her usual roles. Vintage fashion will be a bonus for those who fancy artichoke cuts, bouffant dress and the whole era of the first bikinis (no bikini in the movie).Shame that fashion will be pretty much all you'll learn about girls education of the time, as well as the time.

Preachy vehicle that takes setting up a straw man to new level. Could this (Wellesley) possibly be the college that a mere decade later would hatch Alinsky inspired Hillary Rodham? The trustees must be turning over in their graves. OK, the fifties were a long way from the tumultuous sixties (See: Sixty Stanzas For The Sixties), but this mindless bunch of zombies (and their modern day sexually obscure Jeanne Brody) would never have gained entrance to this high achieving albeit elite institution.I'm a guy who likes a lot of "chick flicks" and finds the phrase dismissive and unfair, but not for this one. Run guys run.

It's 1953, Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts) is a California girl hired as an Art History teacher at the conservative all girls Wellesley College. The students are all from upper crust families, top academically, and aiming to get marry.There are top talented actors in this movie. The girls are Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Ginnifer Goodwin. That's some acting power. The oddest thing acting wise has to be the subdue performance of Julia Roberts. She starts off timidly which just doesn't fit her persona. Her energy is literally vibrating as she tries to squash it down. Instead of a slice of life, it feels more like a magazine article about a slice of life.Without more realism or more tension, the story just doesn't have the zip. One problem may be the fact that everything is about marriage. It is the era of the movie, but just superficially old fashion. Maybe director Mike Newell should emphasize more the pressure of the day. Instead he assumes the audience feels this automatically. He definitely needs to build up the tension. He needs more scenes like the one with Kirsten Dunst and her mother.

* THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS* Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts) comes to the conservative Wellesley School in 1953 to teach art, and to teach its students that they can handle both career and marriage, and not to give up on a career, even as society and the school itself tell them otherwise. The students: Betty (Dunst)is the rich snob who continuously insults Katherine for her liberal views on life and art, bashes people she dislikes in the school newsletter, and even schemes against her friends. Joan (Stiles) wants to be a lawyer. Katherine helps her secure an admission to Yale. Giselle (Gyllenhaal) is shown as being promiscuous. She sleeps with the professor of Italian, Bill Dunbar, but when he ends it, ends up bedding an older, married man. She doesn't have an aim in life regarding anything. Early on, she is shown kissing even the girls in intimate places on the body in a couple of scenes (oddly, they don't mind). Made me wonder if she is bisexual, but that angle is not explored, so why hint at it? Don't get me wrong - a girl can sexually explore her boundaries, but lurking around a professor's house to sleep with him and chasing married men is downright disgusting. Giselle is best described as a nymphomaniac. Connie (Goodwin) is the simple girl who dreams of finding her prince charming, which she does eventually. No career plans. Bill Dunbar (West) is the professor infamous for sleeping with his students. He ends up dating Katherine. Why the girls take up art is unclear as none wants to pursue it further. They never study or research art. There are a few art class scenes, but the idea of using art as a tool on which to build the premise of the movie is not convincing. The portrayal of Wellesley School is insulting to the school itself. Every effort is made to drill into the girls' heads that their purpose in life is to be good wives and mothers and nothing more. The school does not permit Katherine to date Dunbar. (It is one of the conditions the school sets when her teaching contract is renewed.) This is outrageous bordering on hilarious, since the school is okay with Dunbar nailing students. Not to mention, for such a conservative school in the 1950s, there is no objection to the previously-existing lesbian relationship of the school nurse and biology teacher. (The relationship ended because the teacher died, not because the school banned it. Later, the nurse is fired for distributing contraception.) Thereby, this is what the school rules dictate: A member of the staff can have sexual relationships with students. A member of the staff may engage in homo-, but not hetero- sexual, relations with another member of the staff. (I am surprised that no reviewer has mentioned these two points.) Finally, Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts). When her decent boyfriend of some months travels thousands of miles to propose to her, she refuses saying it is too sudden. Next thing we know, she is in Dunbar's bed despite knowing of his ways and makes him promise to stop. Yeah, you ditch your nice boyfriend for no good reason and expect a womaniser not to cheat on you. Smart. Later, she breaks up with Dunbar over a trivial lie he told her. Why on earth she even falls for Dunbar in the first place is a million dollar question. What happens next? Betty gets married, husband cheats on her, she comes to her senses, apologises to Katherine, gets a divorce and after graduation, relocates with Giselle to Greenwich Village to pursue law. Giselle probably moves to Greenwich Village to find more men to seduce. Joan chooses family over career and gets married. Connie's story is not shown further. After Katherine's contract is renewed for another year, I thought the movie might redeem itself by showing that Katherine continues to teach and marries Dunbar, thus showing that a woman can handle both career and marriage. Instead, she runs away to Europe. Hypocrite lead character. The girls follow her on bikes and wave teary farewells to her. God knows why. Did we learn anything? No. Did Katherine accomplish anything? No. Julia Roberts is a good actor, but this was a bad movie to produce and star in. Gyllenhaal and Goodwin are good. The single star is for the 'Istanbul-Constantinople' track which was fun.The inconsistencies throughout the movie make it seem like a house of cards being built on a very shaky table. Avoid.