Mona Lisa Smile




           

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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:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001565/

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