Mona Lisa Smile stars Julia Roberts as Katherine Watson, a new teacher who has accepted a position to teach art history at Wellesley – the all women college in Massachusetts. Much to her dismay, the progressive thinking taught in California is not embraced by the stiff administrators at Wellesley, and prompts comments like, “You didn’t come to Wellesley to help people find their way, you came to help people find your way.”
It’s not just the faculty that finds Katherine’s methods unacceptable. At first, her students refuse to go along with Watson’s free thinking ideas because they have already read the course textbook and syllabus, and think that the textbook contains everything they need to know. Once the students have finished the textbook, they think they should spend their time outside of class smoking, drinking and planning their weddings. When one of Katherine’s students, Betty (Kirsten Dunst) gets married, it suddenly becomes clear to Katherine that her pupils see their education a way to pass their time until they are married. Katherine is amazed by the girls’ ingrained notions that a woman’s first duty is to her husband and family.
This enrages Katherine, and against the wishes of her superiors, she challenges her students to reject the norm, and follow a path of their own choosing. It takes some time, but Katherine’s persistence does eventually reach the girls.
I really wanted to like Mona Lisa Smile for the way it encourages women to think for themselves, and make the choices that only they feel are best. And maybe with a stronger lead character, that message would have resonated louder. =)
