Review of Mona Lisa Smile (2003) by Lia K — 20 Jun 2016

The Subversives.

The movie Mona Lisa Smile is about sexism, the story takes place in the 50s. The writers are Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal and the movie is directed by Mike Newell. The title is a reference to the painting Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci. The main actresses are Julia Roberts, who became a star after the movie Pretty Woman (1990); Kirsten Dunst who was Mary Jane in the Spider Man franchise, she won the award for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival and the Saturn Award for her performance in the movie Melancholy (2011); Julia Stiles participated in three Hollywood productions: The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum with actor Matt Damon; Maggie Gyllenhaal, her last job was the miniseries The Honourable Woman in 2014; Ginnifer Goodwin, currently dubbed the voice of the character Judy Hops in the movie Zootopia. Julia Roberts stars as the art history teacher at conservative Wellesley College, and her main intention is to break the behaviors and thoughts imposed by the sexism culture.

This Movie is amazing, because it shows different female behavior imposed for society, the time is the 50s but is very recent. The teacher Katherine Watson supports the idea that women don´t need to marry and have a family, but to build professional career and to be independent. The five students represent some prejudice that society impose to women saying what woman can or can´t be, in the movie there are women more liberal, the bigoted - all things were wrong and because of this she looks like she doesn't like women - the insecure, because she didn´t have a beauty standard. The Wellesley College taught how to behave around men, its culture was around men, the girls married during the academic life, and they abandoned their dreams and desires.

Julia Roberts acting was convincing, she broke the image of fragile character and romantic of "Pretty Woman" movie, passed the image of a strong woman that has conviction of ideals. The actress Maggie Gyllenhal almost stole the scene with her interpretation, because the character was the opposite of expected for that time, and she didn´t worry about people's opinion. Gisele was authentic and lived life without stereotypes.

Currently, the Wellesley College looks like a place to form leaderships, where women can do the difference in the world, but these actions look a little still uneven, although the ideas have changed. The women don´t need specific place to study or to form leaderships, women and men need to be together without differences and with respect. Unfortunately, "Mona Lisa smile" shows a reality: women don´t like women. The sexism is rooted and women judge women for any action or appearances, women need to be subversive, breaking barriers and stereotypes, they need to be united. Women need in their day by day actions, changing the women image, we aren´t born to serve men, we are able to build our own life and to make our choices, we can make any choice independent of people's opinion.

Finally, the movie showed a present reality in society, but can be changed like in the movie, the students become aware of real role. This film is recommended for all the public, in special for women, because it is a form of awareness and a reflection to review some thoughts and actions. A change need to start from us women.