If you know the film Mona Lisa Smile (2003), you might agree that it is about showing women in the 1950s that their lives do not necessarily have to be about being a wife.  There is nothing wrong with this assessment.  What this review will seek to suggest is that there is a more nuanced view of the movie.  The main character, Katherine Ann Watson (Julia Roberts), an art history professor at the conservative all girls’ institution of higher learning Wellesley College, says the following, “Just because something is ancient does not mean it is primitive.”  As you will see in the synopsis, these are words with which she has to come to terms.  As a practicing Catholic, I heard in them an unintended defense of the Church.  Catholicism is often lumped with staid traditionalism designed to keep people like women from achieving their full potential.  Yet, like art itself, who gets to determine what is progressive (read in the movie as subversive) and what is proper?  Because God gave us free will, it is up to the individual, by discerning God’s will, to choose their path. Ultimately, that is what each character does, and it will be my pleasure to describe it to you.

As Katherine travels by train from California where she has been attending graduate school to Wellesley College in Massachusetts at the beginning of Mona Lisa Smile, she would describe her attitude about getting to teach art history at this prestigious school as excited.  Though she encounters early on the prim and proper Wellesley way of doing things, she is also charmed by the start of the year traditions.  Further, despite some encouraging advice to the contrary from her fellow faculty, she is nervous about her first class.  Her apprehension proves warranted.  With slide after slide, the students know the work in each image and the proper things their text has to say about them, leaving her with little else to say.  What she discovers is that many of the women attending the school treat it as basically a waystation until they find a man to marry.  If there is anyone who personifies this it is the well-bred, and thus haughty, Elizabeth “Betty” Warren (Kirsten Dunst).  Thus, naturally, she is the one who has the most difficulty with Katherine when the professor decides to change the curriculum in order to explore art beyond the syllabus and outside their norms.  Some respond positively from the outset, like the promiscuous Giselle Levy (Maggie Gyllenhaal).  Her flirtations have been known to extend to male members of the faculty, like Italian professor Bill Dunbar (Dominic West).  Between this and her openness about obtaining a diaphragm contraceptive from the school nurse, it is too much for Betty.  Without naming Giselle, Betty writes an opinion piece for the school newspaper incriminating the nurse and leading to her being fired.  The move does not sit well with Katherine, thus she is surprised when she is invited to Betty’s wedding.  At the reception, Bill arranges to sit next to her because he is developing a romantic interest in her despite his reputation.  Around the same time, one of Katherine’s other students, Joan Brandwyn (Julia Stiles), mentions that she is interested in law school.  For the moment, it is an abstract concept since she is engaged to Tommy Donegal (Topher Grace).  When Katherine presses Joan, the student states it would be a moot point if she applied because she would be married.  Katherine encourages Joan to try anyway, and she gets into Yale.  At first, the only person Joan tells of the development is her best friend, Betty, swearing her to secrecy.  The problem with that is that Betty is unhappy, mainly with her marriage to Spencer Jones (Jordan Bridges).  He is constantly leaving the house for “meetings,” and later we find out that he is being unfaithful.  Hence, upon returning to school after a long unexcused absence and being confronted by Katherine, Betty writes another article lambasting the art history professor for her “subversive” ways by helping students do something other than prepare to be a housewife.  In the wake of this, Katherine tells her class that they won and then showing them a number of slides pertaining to modern advertising and how it is designed to market women as basically chained to the home.  Katherine’s disgust also comes out in a fiery meeting with the dean, Jocelyn Carr (Marian Seldes).  With that and an awkward breakup with her boyfriend from California, Paul Moore (John Slattery), Katherine takes comfort in Bill’s arms, making him promise that he will stop sleeping with students.  Speaking of those students, they begin to show more appreciation for Katherine, particularly after Joan is accepted into Yale.  Despite the acceptance, Joan has to tell Katherine that she has opted for not going to law school.  What Katherine must come to accept is that Joan has chosen the vocation of being a wife and mother.  Joan is happy with her decision, but Betty’s marriage and life is falling apart.  Betty tries to stay with her mother (Donna Mitchell) in light of Spencer’s behavior, but Mrs. Warren refuses.  Then, when Giselle returns to the dorm after being out all night, Betty lashes out at Giselle, calling her a whore.  It is evident to Giselle that Betty is hurting, so instead of matching her anger, Giselle hugs Betty.  The same kind of peaceful ending is not in store for Katherine.  The blow comes when she learns that Bill had been dishonest about his time serving in the army during World War II.  The other is when she is invited to teach next year, but only under the condition that she follow their strict guidelines.  Of course, she decides not to return and to go to Europe instead.  Though her students are saddened by the news, they see her taxi off as she leaves campus on graduation day.

Seeing the Wellesley graduates at the end of Mona Lisa Smile made me nostalgic for my own days in academia.  It also brings to mind the so-called “assigned roles” that Betty talks about early in the film.  To a degree, Catholicism agrees with the notion that there are certain things people are born to do.  Where they do not align is in how narrow are the functions for women that Betty has in mind.  For her, women are supposed to be housewives and mothers.  I thought of myself in this regard because for as long as I could remember as a kid, I thought I was destined to be a professional baseball player.  Even though I am now forty-five and well past my window for giving that a shot, I still sometimes wish I had pursued such a career to the fullest.  Yet, when I switched from that to trying to become a professor of history, that made up the entirety of my existence.  What I had to figure out, as does Betty, is that there is more to life than being a professor or a housewife.  The example I always look to for evidence of this fact are female and male religious orders.  Though their singular purpose centers on prayer, they also work to provide a living for themselves.  Their days are structured in such a way that while prayer takes primacy, it is part of the natural order of a twenty-four-hour period where one activity flows into the next as a piece of a comprehensive whole.  The person who provides the meaning is God, not a husband or trying to impress the dean of a school with your academic achievement.  What I am trying to say here is that there is nothing wrong with making the choice Joan does, or being a teacher.  However, they should be done because they are what God is calling you to do, not what somebody else expects of you.  This is not meant to make your decisions easier.  But if you view your decisions through this lens, they will become bearable even in the most difficult moments.

As for Mona Lisa Smile, it can be a little difficult to get through in terms of seeing the clearly misogynistic world in which these women live.  It also drags in some places, but I am mostly fine with this aspect.  By the end, I found myself sympathizing with the gratitude Katherine has for her students, and I think you will feel the same for seeing it.