Soltanova Ashe 4/4

Mona Lisa Smile – Film Review and Analysis

The movie is about a 1950s art teacher who wants to change the world one student at a time.
Its message? Marriage is one of the least desirable choices a young woman can make.

Katherine Watson is something of a bohemian. But when she gets an opportunity to teach
art history at one of the country’s most prestigious institutions for women, Wellesley
College, she jumps at the chance. She physically moves to New England, but she brings with
her her “California-style” progressive (subversive) values. Once there, she’s surrounded by
gaggles of traditionally minded pupils, an outwardly conservative faculty and a stern college
president.

Under the glassy surface, though, boils discontent and immorality. One of her housemates
(the school’s nurse) is a lesbian who distributes illegal contraception to students. A fellow
teacher (with whom Katherine falls in lust) is known for his philandering—with students.
Another housemate (the poise, manners and elocution instructor), while an icon of decorum
in public, is so brokenhearted over a lost love that she rarely leaves her seat in front of the
TV. Outside, everyone’s all smiles. Inside, hearts are aching and breaking all over campus.

Katherine’s remedy for the pain all this duplicity brings? Modern art. The all-out pursuit of
personal fulfillment. And the complete rejection of all things traditional. Katherine’s
student’s remedy? Booze—and quick engagements.

Katherine refuses to stay in a relationship that includes deception. Her ideals are misplaced,
but her care for her girls is genuine. She teachers her students to think for themselves.
Indeed, “Mona Lisa Smile” includes many “positive” elements that are ultimately sullied by
the overarching messages that surround them. For instance, a woman is shown to be
devastated when her husband ignores her in favor of long business trips and other women.
Another discovers that clear communication between people can many times clear up
damaging rumors and misinformation.

Mona Lisa Smile is a good story to remind girls coming up in the world how far we’ve come
—and how much we have to be grateful for. It was a lot of struggle to get us to this point,
you know, so that we can vote and wear pants and all the rest. A lot of good social changes
have happened over the course of the last century. And a lot of misguided ideas and ideals
were a fixture in our society during the 1950s. But a cultural commitment to marriage wasn’t
one of them. So Smile starts looking like a pretty big frown as it throws out the proper value
of nuptial vows along with the improper subjugation some women historically faced.

I was beyond excited to see a movie set in the 1950s, with all the neat outfits, the makeup,
the hairstyles. I love the era. “Mona Lisa Smile” can win all hearts!