Playing Mona Lisa (2000)

Another case of "should have left it alone". I read the description of the film on digital cable, I saw "classical musician" and "Harvey Fierstein" and decided to give it a shot. I figured if anything, I would get some decent classical music and well, Harvey Fierstein - one of my favorite people in entertainment after seeing "Torch Song Trilogy" 16 years ago.

Unfortunately, that's pretty much all I got out of this film, and in very small doses. Playing Mona Lisa is has a ridiculous premise: A gifted classically trained pianist graduates from the San Francisco Conservatory and is first proposed to after a drunken night, then dumped. She then moves back in with her family, which tries really hard to be quirky but truly fails and is actually irritating. In between spastic situations with her family, she hangs out with her impossibly "cool" friends who hold some pretty outrageously expensive looking parties and then finds a guy to mess around with. (A relationship that goes nowhere, despite the movie's attempts to make it seem like it's all hot and heavy).

Like I said, the only personal saving graces for this movie were the short appearances of classical piano playing (by Alicia Witt herself, which is impressive) and the fabulous Harvey Fierstein. He should be a "relief actor". Anytime a film looks like it's going to fail miserably, bring in Harvey as a pinch actor, and you'll have at least one redeeming factor. It worked for Mrs. Doubtfire and Independence Day.

--Shelly