Mona Lisa Smile Is the Title of a 2003 Film Directed by Mike Newell and Starring Julia

1 Mona Lisa Smile is the title of a 2003 film directed by Mike Newell and starring Julia Roberts as novice art professor Katherine Ann Watson at Wellesley, a private women's liberal arts college west of Boston, during the school year 1953/54. She is free-thinking and unorthodox in her teaching methods and a product of a state university rather than one of the elite colleges, so she is initially not respected by students or most other faculty members. It is hoped that perhaps she will make up in brains what she lacks in pedigree. She is referred to as "Bohemian" but she would probably not appear so in a less stuffy and tradition-bound place. Her artistic tastes would seem modern and her feminism was perhaps a bit ahead of the main wave, but she also shows herself to be bound by a number of social conventions. The four main students whose stories thread throughout the movie are Betty (Kirsten Dunst), Joan (Julia Stiles), Giselle (Maggie Gyllenhaal), and Connie (Ginnifer Goodwin). Betty is by far the most traditional in her plans and outlook. She is the most bigoted, bad- tempered, rude, and least open to change. She is also the one who ends up with the most change in circumstances, going from a young student with no plans other than a perfect marriage to a divorcing woman moving to Greenwich Village. Joan blossoms during the year and actually considers her options, marriage or law school, carefully. After eloping, Joan makes an impassioned speech to Professor Watson pointing out the professor's own stereotyping, telling her that it is wrong to assume housewives have no depth and no intellect. She is comfortable with the choice she has made to put husband and children ahead of career and does not consider her education a waste of potential. Giselle is wild by the standards of the other girls, sleeping with her professor and later with married men, and drinking too much. She is barely acceptable to the school and its alumni patrons. Joan's mother refers to her as a New York kike. Connie is almost an outsider, shy and unsure of herself and her ability to ever "catch" a husband. She also 2 blossoms through a series of romantic mishaps and ends the school year by actively taking control back of her options. The whole point of the movie is that through an exploration of unconventional art and later through direct counseling, Professor Watson calls on her students to question the conservative, traditional social roles they have been brought up to anticipate as the major or even only goal of their lives. Labels and how they measure and rank society are a theme throughout the movie. The movie opens with all the students wearing the distinctive caps of their grade, and all the faculty in full academic robes. It is very clear what the hierarchy is. The students initially look at a piece of art and are able to do nothing other than label it with the period and descriptive information provided in their textbook. (Later they learn to actually consider art as art.) Professor Watson's roommate, a professor of elocution and poise, actually labels the refrigerator shelves, keeping the rules "sacrosanct." Married students are clearly given preferential treatment. All of the girls are quick to name-call and label negatively. This was a very pretty movie to watch. Everyone is easy to look at; there are lots of scenes with well-dressed men and beautifully gowned women. Julia Roberts is remarkably lovely which seems a bit convenient as her attractiveness adds to her allure as a teacher and mentor and makes her seem less shrill than she is in some scenes. The advertisements played during the closing credits add to the many visuals in the movie showing the stereotyped happy but rather witless homemaker. The ending also makes very clear Professor Watson's choice. She is leaving behind two very attractive men who cannot meet her standards, and she is happy about going on to Europe without them. The movie reminds us that this is not quitting, but refusing to comply with foolish standards and stereotypes like those expected at Wellesley. .

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