A free-thinking art teacher named Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts) starts working at a private school where women are trained to be good wives who will obey their husbands. Watson encourages them to think beyond those boundaries and question the roles that have been selected for them.
It’s nearly brilliant. The four main students are excellently played by Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Julia Stiles and Ginnifer Goodwin. Roberts is somehow less convincing – a rather po-faced character, drawn in the broadest strokes. Also, Roberts somehow seems like she’s from the 1990s rather than the 1950s, so you can never quite believe in her. It’s almost like a time travel film in which she’s a social visionary from the future who comes to enlighten the girls of the past.
The film makes lots of points about social roles but it’s just too simplistic to carry any real weight. Instead, it ends up being a rather wishy-washy compromise about doing what’s right and following your heart.
Tori Amos has a cameo as a wedding singer. Juliet Stevenson has an intriguing role as a rebellious lesbian, but she’s cast out of the school and the film too early.
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