Would you choose to be a “loving mother and wife” instead of joining the elite at Harvard Law School? What would your mother do? What would your grandmother decide? Set in the 1950’s Mona Lisa Smile challenges not only the values of its Diegetic world but those of the audience. It questions the idea of stereotypes. I, a woman immersed within the current college generation am looking at this old fashioned depiction of college. Maybe time is not as definite as we all define it to be?
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Would you choose to be a “loving mother and wife” instead of joining the elite at Harvard Law School? What would your mother do? What would your grandmother decide? Set in the 1950’s Mona Lisa Smile challenges not only the values of its Diegetic world but those of the audience. It questions the idea of stereotypes. I, a woman immersed within the current college generation am looking at this old fashioned depiction of college. Maybe time is not as definite as we all define it to be?
Held
to such high social standards, young women were expected to hold a high place
even in education. Mona Lisa Smile specifically
highlights the lives of “high class women” attending the most elite college
strictly used to mold women, Wellesley. These girls with brilliance, beauty and
grace were required to continue higher education until they got married. Katherine
Watson (Julia Roberts), 30 years old and a recent graduate of UCLA eagerly
applies for an open position in the Art History department at Wellesley College,
she receives the position. Eager to transform the brightest female minds in
America, she in the beginning of her new position struggles to challenge the
minds of her class. Instinctively ignoring the studies of traditional art – the
girls already knew these ideas- she opened their eyes to a life they did not
know existed, creativity, intelligence and independence. Intermixed with her
passion and career we follow the lives of some of her key students, Betty Warren
( Kirsten Dunst), Joan Brandwyn(
Julia Styles) , Giselle Levy ( Maggie Gyllenhaal) and Connie Baker (Gennifer
Goodwin).
Instead
of purely focusing on Watson’s “anti-house wife” motives within the film we saw
perspectives from all sides of the argument. Joan Brandwyn, one of Watson’s
best students asks for help to apply to Harvard Law School. Watson makes it her
quest to do everything to make sure Joan goes, especially once she was indeed
accepted to the program with a full scholarship. At one point of the Film
Watson approaches Joan trying to convince her that she can be both a wife ( to
her boyfriend of many years) and have a successful career Joan says this, “Sure you did. You
always do. You stand in class and tell us to look beyond the image, but you
don't. To you a housewife is someone who sold her soul for a center hall
colonial. She has no depth, no intellect, no interests. You're the one who said
I could do anything I wanted. This is what I want.” This scene not only fuels the fire of the
sexist stereotypes of the 1950’s but forces Watson to rethink her approach. She
will inspire but not pressure.
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This college film unexpectedly
focuses on the teacher –student relationship at a transitional point of life
and history. It accurately depicts the sturdy, strict control of women during
the 1950’s. Refreshingly this film addresses the party aspect of college in a
realistic light way. The girls thought under extreme supervision found outlets
to drink and smoke with their friends, however this by no means played its usual
excessive role in the film.
Even though this film was
not quite “action packed” or dramatic it was nice to watch a film about college
that was not over the top, unrealistic and vulgar. Mike Newell, director of Mona
Lisa Smile (2003) directed other well known films including Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Love in the Time of Cholera (2007) and
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010).
Newell, conceptually within Mona Lisa
Smile fought the ideas of stereotypes, yet his characters seemed to play
the “stereotypical” personalities found in every typical film about school. The
whore ( Giselle Levy), the uptight conservative who does not budge from
tradition ( Betty Warren), the pure nice academic (
Joan Brandwyn) and the eccentric flamboyant bunch of the group ( Connie Baker).
Newell assuming this “dynamic” group of friends would stand out proved to be
inaccurate. This was the “cliché” aspect of the film I could have done without.
It was “nice” but not an out of the ordinary strategy within the film industry.
However the flaws within their friendship, the fights, the manipulation, and guilt
trips added a smidge of realism to this overdone, manmade relationship. Realism
is also boosted by the authentic 1950’s characters wardrobe as well as captured
by the beautiful imager y of the fall season. Mona
Lisa Smile artistically allows the audience to be a part of the characters
story instead of watching the story.
Sure Mona Lisa Smile on the surface of the plot represents college life
for women in the 1950’s, however I found it enticing, different and thought
provoking. Surprisingly I had an initial lack of enthusiasm going to see this film,
but walked out of the theater reflective and conscious of my own life and what
my future holds. Who knows maybe more
school is in my future. Maybe I will travel across the world with only a
backpack full of my favorite kind of candy. It doesn’t matter because Mona Lisa Smile
showed me that it’s all up to me and what I want.
References:
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