Film Review: Mona Lisa Smile

Film Review: Mona Lisa Smile
The film Mona Lisa Smile is set in the 1950’s era of where phrases like, "I think it's time to wax the linoleum," confined women to the ultimate realm of domesticity—her home. Mona Lisa Smile’s main character, Julia Roberts also known as Katherine Ann Watson, begins her career at a northeastern liberal arts college for women known as Wellesley College. Unfortunately, Wellesley College is no way familiar to Ms. Watson liberal women’s rights California native roots. Throughout the film Ms. Watson encounters an enormous amount of backlash to her personal teaching methods of the Modern Arts. She teaches her conservative “housewife bred” students the importance of independence, free thought and action, and female rights by introducing their minds to the concepts and freedom in Modern Art. Unfortunately, Miss Betty Warren, the films main antagonist, brings the films story full circle: she, a young female trapped in her societal role and yet learning and desiring to express the joys of free thought. The film concludes with Ms. Watson leaving Wellesley College, but leaving young women who were changed for the better.

The film is centered on the 1950’s cultural dogma of women’s roles to be domesticated silent Queens. I use the word Queens to describe the role of women in the era because women were to be beautiful, educated, conservatively fashionable, and a supreme trophy wife—these qualities typifies characteristics of a Queen with no vocal power (definitely no Marie Antoinette). The readings from our text, The Beauty Myth, centered on themes of The Beauty Myth and Work; Naomi Wolf describes The Beauty Myth as: “… an obsession with physical perfection that traps the modern woman in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society's impossible definition of "the flawless beauty." The myths presented throughout the book that seem prevalent in the film are disregard for the advancement of education and career and the societal roles of women. Wolf argumentatively describes the evolution of the beauty myth in her text:
“If the beauty myth is not based one evolution, sex, gender, aesthetics, or God, on what is it based? It claims to be about intimacy and sex and life, a celebration of women. It is actually composed of emotional distance, politics, finance, and sexual repression. The beauty myth is not about women at all. It is about men’s institutions and institutional power.” P. 13






Within the film one can observe how women are encouraged to pursue their MRS versus their BAS (Bachelors of Arts and Sciences) when the Wellesley girls hold a yearly celebration competing to see which girl will win—in which the prize is either marriage or pregnancy. I do not hold a very strong feminist point of view but I do believe scenes like the one described above encourage women to forget that they too are capable of every career progression and advancement like a man. One notices the hampering of dreams when Joan Brandwyn decides to reconsider her honorable acceptance into law school because she wants to get married. I am not disregarding some women’s decisions to choose to obtain a form of formal education; however, I do think it is worth the risk to try life on ones own in the work force to develop one’s individual assets, life lessons, and wits. I believe when one, especially a young woman, takes this time in life she too will be ready and a great asset to whatever romantic relationship she finds in life.

Mona Lisa Smile was a very enjoyable movie. I did notice in my second time to watch the film how much societal norms of the era controlled the young women in the movie’s life. There were several gender, body image, beauty perceptions portrayed in the film that aroused a sense of shock and awe to how desensitized I had become to the content until I watched the film under a more critical eye. The issues of body image were most prevalent in Miss Connie Baker and desire for the attention and love of a man. Connie even says in the film” When your courses are set and a dreamboat you've met, have a real cigarette! Have a Camel!" I've got my courses; I've got my Camel cigarette. Where the hell is my dreamboat? “. Unfortunately, we see in the movie all the themes of gender in the roles the women and leadership of the town and school of Wellesley College.






We observe the female students of Wellesley constantly comparing their money, looks, and marital status as form of body image competition and beauty development. We see in the film that one of the strongest developed characters is Giselle Levy and that of Ms. Katherine Watson. These two women bond over the themes of independence, freedom of thought and voice, and not abiding by the cultural norms. These two women influence and bring about the encouragement and change that drastically affected the young women of Wellesley. I can support my claims by using a reference to the last scene in Mona Lisa Smile where Ms. Betty Warren decides to divorce her cheating husband and pursue a career in writing she then attributes and thanks Ms. Watson for her undying love and support for opening the young girls minds.