Everything goes wrong all at once in gifted 23-year-old pianist Claire Goldstein's life. San Francisco has an earthquake, she loses her apartment, her boyfriend Jeremy dumps her and she misses out on an important piano competition.
Claire is forced to move home with her parents (Marlo Thomas, Elliott Gould), where sister Jenine (Molly Hagan) is busy planning a wedding. Claire's mom is into the occult, her teacher (Harvey Fierstein) tries to arrange auditions and friends try to hook her up with a new romantic prospect, Eddie, adding to the complications in her life.
Merle Bertrand of Film Threat gave the film a mixed review, noting that despite featuring some funny moments, "Playing Mona Lisa plays like a sitcom pilot on steroids. The cast shamelessly overplays their nitwit roles for laughs, which are rarely present, and the underlying idiocy of the various plotline twists becomes so irritating that one wishes mobsters from a Scorsese film could stop by to shoot off a few kneecaps."[8] In another review by Film Threat, it was given some praise: "Though not tremendously original and definitely not even remotely "edgy," Playing Mona Lisa is nonetheless a pleasant enough film, gently amusing and filled with enough familiar and/or attractive faces and good-natured gags to make the time pass by easily."[9]
Buzz McClain of AllMovie gave the film a two out of five-star rating, noting: "A lighter touch for this would-be screwball comedy was called for than what director Matthew Huffman gives it. , so hateful as the antagonizing daughter on TV's Cybill, occasionally rises above the material and generates genuine sympathy, and she convincingly plays the brief classical piano parts herself... But a movie that gets its title from a lame gag recited in the film (it refers to the way single women are supposed to smile at men) is doomed from the start."[10]
The film won the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature in 2000 at the Stony Brook Film Festival.[11] It also won the Film Discovery Jury Award for Best Actor Alicia Witt in 2000 at U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.[11]
Alicia Silverstone is an American actress. She made her film debut in the thriller The Crush (1993), earning the 1994 MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance, and gained further prominence as a teen idol when she appeared in the music videos for Aerosmith's songs "Cryin'”, "Amazing" and "Crazy". She went on to star as Cher Horowitz in the teen comedy film Clueless (1995), which earned her a multi-million dollar deal with Columbia Pictures. In 1997, she starred in the superhero film Batman & Robin, playing Batgirl.
Matthew Broderick is an American actor. His roles include the Golden Globe–nominated portrayal of the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), the voice of adult Simba in Disney's The Lion King (1994), and Leo Bloom in both the Broadway musical The Producers and its 2005 film adaptation. Other films he has starring credits in include WarGames (1983), Glory (1989), The Freshman (1990), The Cable Guy (1996), Godzilla (1998), Election (1999), Inspector Gadget (1999), You Can Count on Me (2000), and The Last Shot (2004). Broderick also directed himself in Infinity (1996) and provided voice work in Good Boy! (2003), Bee Movie (2007), and The Tale of Despereaux (2008).
Julia O'Hara Stiles is an American actress. Born and raised in New York City, Stiles began acting at the age of 11 as part of New York's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. Her film debut was a small role in I Love You, I Love You Not (1996), followed by a lead role in Wicked (1998) for which she received the Karlovy Vary Film Festival Award for Best Actress. She rose to prominence with leading roles in teen films such as 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), Down to You (2000), and Save the Last Dance (2001). Her accolades include a Teen Choice Award and two MTV Movie Awards, as well as nominations for a Golden Globe Award, and Primetime Emmy Award.
Alicia Roanne Witt is an American actress, singer-songwriter, and pianist. She first came to fame as a child actress after being discovered by David Lynch, who cast her in Dune (1984) and Twin Peaks (1990). Witt was a regular on Cybill Shepherd's sitcom Cybill (1995–1998) for four seasons, playing the title character's daughter, Zoe Woodbine. She had a critically acclaimed role as a disturbed teenager in Fun (1994), appeared as a music student in Mr. Holland's Opus (1995) and as a terrorized college student in the horror film Urban Legend (1998). She appeared in Vanilla Sky (2001), Two Weeks Notice (2002), Last Holiday (2006), 88 Minutes (2007), I Care A Lot (2020) and Longlegs (2024). Witt has made television appearances in shows such as The Walking Dead, The Sopranos, Friday Night Lights, Twin Peaks: The Return, CSI: Miami, Supernatural, and Orange Is the New Black.
Elliott Gould is an American actor.
Molly Helen Shannon is an American actress and comedian. She was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 2001. In February 2017, she won the Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film Other People.
Margaret Julia"Marlo"Thomas is an American actress, producer, author, and social activist. She is best known for starring on the sitcom That Girl (1966–1971) and her children's franchise Free to Be... You and Me. She received three Primetime Emmy Awards, a Daytime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Peabody Award for her work in television and was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame.
Sarah Hagan is an American television and film actress.
David Leland was a British film director, screenwriter and actor who came to international fame with his directorial debut Wish You Were Here in 1987.
John Mark Galecki is an American actor. The accolades he has received include a Satellite Award, alongside nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, and six Screen Actors Guild Awards.
The Wood is a 1999 American coming-of-age comedy drama film directed by Rick Famuyiwa and starring Omar Epps, Richard T. Jones and Taye Diggs. It was written by Famuyiwa and Todd Boyd.
Molly Hagan is an American actress. She co-starred in films Code of Silence (1985), Some Kind of Wonderful (1987), The Dentist (1996), Election (1999), and Sully (2016), and is also known for her roles in television on Herman's Head (1991–94) and Unfabulous (2004–07).
Garbo Talks is a 1984 American comedy-drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Anne Bancroft, Ron Silver, and Carrie Fisher, with an uncredited appearance by Betty Comden as Greta Garbo.
Rosemarie Braddock DeWitt is an American actress. DeWitt played Emily Lehman in the Fox television series Standoff (2006–07), co-starring with her future husband Ron Livingston, as well as Charmaine Craine on United States of Tara. She also was the title character in 2008's Rachel Getting Married, garnering several awards and nominations for best supporting actress. She starred as Ryan Gosling's sister Laura Wilder in the Oscar-winning movie La La Land. She also starred in the horror/thriller Poltergeist (2015), a remake of the 1982 film of the same name.
I Think I Do is a 1997 American gay-themed romantic comedy film written and directed by Brian Sloan and starring Alexis Arquette. It premiered on June 20, 1997 at the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, and was also shown at the Toronto International Film Festival later that year, before receiving a small theatrical run on April 10, 1998.
Joseph Owen Thomas is an English actor and comedian. He played Simon Cooper in the E4 sitcom The Inbetweeners (2008–2010) and its two film adaptations, The Inbetweeners Movie (2011) and The Inbetweeners 2 (2014).
Lynn Shelton was an American filmmaker, known for writing, directing, and producing such films as Humpday and Your Sister's Sister. She was associated with the mumblecore genre.
Kathryn Love Newton is an American actress and semi-professional golfer. She is known for her starring roles as Louise Brooks in the CBS comedy series Gary Unmarried (2008–2010), Abigail Carlson in the HBO mystery drama series Big Little Lies (2017–2019), and Allie Pressman in the Netflix teen drama series The Society (2019). She is also known for portraying the older versions of Claire Novak in The CW dark fantasy series Supernatural (2014–2018) and Joanie Clark in the AMC period drama series Halt and Catch Fire (2016–2017).
Digging for Fire is a 2015 American comedy-drama film directed by Joe Swanberg and co-written by Swanberg and Jake Johnson. It stars an ensemble cast led by Johnson, Rosemarie DeWitt, Brie Larson, Sam Rockwell, Anna Kendrick, Orlando Bloom and Mike Birbiglia. Johnson and DeWitt play a married couple who find a gun and a bone in the backyard of a house they are staying in.
Molly Gordon is an American actress, screenwriter and director. She has appeared in the drama TV series Animal Kingdom (2016–2018), and comedy films Life of the Party (2018), Booksmart (2019), and Good Boys (2019). In 2023, she co-directed, co-wrote and starred in the musical comedy film Theater Camp, and took on a recurring role as Claire on the FX series The Bear (2023–present).
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