“Katherine Watson did not come to Wellesley to fit in she came to Wellesley because she wanted to make a difference”
Mike Newell directed “Mona Lisa Smile” was a story of one such woman who did not want to live and leave the world without a mark. She wanted to make a difference in the world in the life of people who have accepted the patterned living and have accepted it to be their “Reason of being”. Like most of us do. . . almost all of us do. We choose the easy life, the easy road, the easy mode and we are easily forgotten one day.
Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts) almost leaves everything back in Los Angeles and grabs an opportunity at Wellesley College (conservative women’s private liberal arts college) in Massachusetts, United States which was her long pending dream. She had a dream to transform the gals at Wellesley, to remind them about their capabilities and the purpose of life. But it wasn’t easy; to teach something which is not acceptable by the college director’s who is happy with the fact that they are running a college to teach gals to be a great wife and a mother. Katherine was warned for her teaching style which was unusual than the instructed one, but she did not care a hoot. She was busy teaching to flow against the tide, to recognize the potential within, to tell the gals that they are wife and mother but also and individual. Katherine through her various quite conduct helped each gal understand the fact that they have the capability to play various role at a go. She was content when she realized that slowly she has been able to instill that faith in one of the student whom she convinced to join a good law school after her grads.
She cared a hoot, when she heard that she was never wanted by the faculty around. But she almost broke with an act of Betty warren (Kirsten Dunst) one of the students (somewhere related to the college management). Betty published an article against Katherine way of teaching. It goes somewhat like this:
Wellesley girls who are married have become quite adept at balancing their obligations. One hears such comments, as - I’m able to baste the chicken with one hand and outline the paper with the other. While our mothers were called to workforce for Lady Liberty. It is our duty- nay, obligation to reclaim our place in the home, bearing the children that will carry our traditions into the future. One must pause to consider why Miss Katherine Watson, instructor in the art history department has decided to declare war on the holy sacrament of marriage. Her subversive and political teachings encourage our Wellesley girls to reject the roles they were born to fill.
Katherine does react but she doesn’t break, she ensures to give the message more clearly. She enters the class with bunch of advertisement slides (This is the best scene of the movie)
Katherine Watson: Quiet. Today you just listen. What will future scholars see when they study us, a portrait of women today? There you are ladies: the perfect likeness of a Wellesley graduate, Magna Cum Laude, doing exactly what she was trained to do.
Slide - a Rhodes Scholar, I wonder if she recites Chaucer while she presses her husband’s shirts.
Slide - hehe, now you physics majors can calculate the mass and volume of every meatloaf you make.
Slide - A girdle to set you free. What does that mean? What does that mean? What does it mean? I give up, you win. The smartest women in the country, I didn’t realize that by demanding excellence I would be challenging... Um... the roles you were born to fill. Is that right?
Katherine leaves the class after this and also the college after the season ends but she does what she came there for and this was proved well by Betty’s last editorial.
Dear Betty, I came to Wellesley because I wanted to make a difference. But to change for others is to lie to yourself. My teacher, Katherine Watson, lived by her own definition and would not compromise that, not even for Wellesley. I dedicate this, my last editorial, to an extraordinary woman, who lived by example and compelled us all to see the world through new eyes. By the time you read this, she’ll be sailing to Europe, where I know she’ll find new walls to break down, and new ideas to replace them with.
This is one of the best movies, I have seen off late. Movie has haunted me almost for a month now. I remember when someone suggested me to read “Snow” and said this will transform you as a person, I wondered if Books/Movies can transform us? But now I know "they do”.
Please do not mistake thismovie to be “an act of feminist” its way beyond that. It has so many sub plots which will pierce the soul within. Every one has something to relate to.
Performances are notable. I have found katherine role to be Julia’s best performance ever. Other notable performances in the role of students were of Giselle Levy (Maggie Gyllenhaal) she just bowls you over in the role of a messed-up gal. Joan Brandwyn (Julia Stiles) and Betty warren (Kirsten Dunst) are also commendable. Role of Nancy Abbey done by Marcia Gay Harden is one I enjoyed the most because of her expressions and the way she delivered the dialogue.
Dialogues should be heard and understood carefully. They are well written and even when heard without watching the scenes you feel they are spoken to you and suits situations in your life very well.
Writers Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal needs a standing ovation for writing such a perfect script. Detailing has been carefully worked on by Director Mike Newell as it beautifully portrays America of 1950’s.
Monalisa Smile seemed to be a journey for me. It taught several lessons to me which can never be summed in one review, but one question which haunts me is “Why am I busy Fitting in when I can make a difference?” And one dialogues while Betty looks at the picture of Monalisa almost killed me: "She is smiling, is she happy?" She looks happy. So, how does it matter?” Thinks about it...
Remember ! the road not taken … the road less travelled? If someday you feel like choosing it (I wish you all choose someday), keep one thing in mind that it will never be the easiest one and at the same time you will be alone on the road. But what is important is not to give up “because to change for others is to lie to yourself”—there are many to die a quite death … if you choose not too .. nothing to be ashamed about.
People laugh because I am different. And I laugh because they are all the same. That’s called Attitude – Swami Vivekananda
P.S: Italics above are the dialogues from the movie.