Mona Lisa Smile

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Mona Lisa Smile's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Mona Lisa Smile completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 14 February 2004.

Overall comments and recommendations

Mona Lisa Smile looks at women’s roles in the 1950s and shows that women have made some advancements in society over the last fifty years. The movie raises many important issues and is very well acted by Julia Roberts and the supporting female cast. As such it is well worth watching by adolescents and adults alike.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Mona Lisa Smile contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

It is 1953 and Katherine Watson is an idealistic, liberated, graduate art history student who accepts a position at Wellesley College, an elite girls school. She hopes to make a difference to the girls’ lives but finds herself up against the establishment, a conservative school board of directors, mostly run by the girls’ parents. Katherine wants to teach the girls to be the future leaders in society but Wellesley College aims to teach the girls to be the wives of the future leaders. Some of the students also oppose her ideas and see Katherine as subversive, in particular Betty Warren who is determined to make life hard for her. Betty also makes life hard for Connie who has low self esteem and has trouble finding a relationship. Betty sees marriage as the best thing to happen to a girl and her greatest desire is to own a home with a washing machine. Betty’s marriage to Spencer is the social event of the year and she is intent on seeing her best friend Joan marry her boyfriend Tom so that they can be housewives together.

Katherine however has great plans for Joan who she sees as a potential law student and gives her an application form to apply for Yale. Joan does apply and is accepted into Yale but her (now) fiancé Tom explains to Katherine that he’s been accepted into Penn and therefore Joan obviously won’t be going to Yale as it will be too far for her to come home and cook his meals.

Giselle is a more liberated and promiscuous student who has an affair with the Italian teacher Bill Dunbar. Bill however is attracted to Katherine and they too have an affair. Katherine had previously been going out with another man, Paul, who she left behind when she went to Wellesely. Katherine has to make several decisions for her life, one being whether she wants to be married or not and whether she wants to stay on at Wellesley where she almost loses her job but is offered a re-appointment under very strict conditions.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is no violence in this movie except for when Betty screams abuse at Giselle.

Material that may scare children

There is nothing scary in this movie.

Sexual references

There are quite a lot of sexual references in this film including the following:

• Amanda Armstrong, the School Nurse, is a lesbian.
• Amanda supplies Giselle with contraceptives, for which she’s fired
• Giselle and Bill Dunbar (a teacher) have an affair. Nothing is shown; the affair is only talked about.
• The girls talk about boys having dicks.
• Paul walks up the stairs to Katherine’s bedroom and when she says no he says that he hasn’t travelled 3000 miles to see her to sleep on the couch. He leaves.
• Katherine and Bill have sex; the sex is implied, they are shown afterwards.
• Connie goes away for the weekend with Charlie.
• Giselle sleeps with a married man. Betty asks her if he paid her and calls her a whore.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is no nudity or sexual activity actually shown.

Use of substances

There is a lot of smoking in this movie and nearly all the girls and women smoke. One of the men smokes a pipe. There is a full page advert in a newspaper for Camel cigarettes.

There is some drinking at a bar and at a wedding.

Coarse language

There is a little coarse language including the following:

• bitch
• arse
• damn.

The movie's message

The message of this film is that girls should be free to make their own choices and not be dictated to by tradition and a male dominated values system.

The movie is set at a time when a woman’s “sole responsibility was to take care of her husband and children” and the thought of having a career was far removed. The movie addresses the sexual revolution that began to occur at this time and exposes the hypocrisy that it was acceptable for married men to have affairs. It doesn’t denigrate the right of a woman to choose to stay at home to care for her husband and children as this is Joan’s choice. Joan explains to Katherine that this doesn’t mean she has no depth or intellect but that it is her choice to do so.

Values parents may wish to encourage include:

• equal gender roles
• to think for one’s self
• empathy
• choosing to be a housewife (as opposed to being expected to be) is still an honourable profession.

Values parents may wish to discourage include:

• intolerance
• spitefulness
• promiscuity
• infidelity
• a teacher having sex with a student.