Movie Review of Mona Lisa Smile

by Gresa Shala

“In a world that told them how to think, she showed them how to live.”

Mona Lisa Smile is directed by Mike Newell and was produced by Joth Roth. The leading roles are played by Kirsten Dunst ( Betty Warren), Julia Stiles (Joan Brandwyn), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Giselle Levy) and Ginnifer Goodwin (Connie Baker).

This film won the Critics Choice Award, the Golden Globe and Teen Choice Award in 2004.

Mona Lisa Smile is an inspirational film to young women worldwide. This film tells of a story about a free- spirited teacher who opens her students’ minds to reach for the stars and pursue their dreams no matter what.

Set in 1953, Katherine Watson (played by Julia Roberts), a graduate of UCLA leaves “Oakland State” University to obtain a teaching profession at Wellesley College, the top women's private liberal arts college in Massachusetts. Seeing how her young students are pressured into becoming housewives and mothers,she tries to put her point across. She tells her students that they don’t need to give in to the stereotypes made by society,or “fill the roles they were born to meet,” as the saying went. Around that time it was assumed that women born to become housewives and mothers and that they could only work in jobs such as a nurse, teacher or secretary. She believed that women could achieve much more, that they could acquire jobs of higher ranks. In the movie, she encourages her students to pursue their dream professions.

I think this film is splendid because it shows us how back then during the 1950s and earlier women didn’t have much choices in terms of what they wanted to be or how they wanted to live their lives. It also reminds us how far women have come, for example now women are free to go to college and occupy any professional career.

I also loved the setting in the movie and the trendy, elegant costumes the actoresses were wearing. This movie had great music that swayed to the rythms of the 1950s.

I highly recommend this movie and it can be found on DVD and VHS at your local library and pharmacy/stores.