Mona Lisa Smile review

aelst's review

A female art teacher goes to teach at an exclusive all girls college around the 1950s. The school is all prim and proper, and it being the 1950s, everyone acts so differently. They way people act on TV and films seems so fake.. I'm not sure if Americans really acted that way in real life 50 years ago. Of course, being an art teacher, she is a progressive feminist and this doesn't fit into the culture of the school, but she tries to teach her students her ideals and eventually they accept her.

I do like the scene where a student replies and, in todays context says that she'd rather be a housewife than a professional lawyer. I suppose there is some sort of backlash to the "tragic waste of potential" viewpoint. Some people are naturally apathetic, or will achieve personal goals and don't want or need to work hard to achieve something because then can.

Some really funny (and now politically incorrect) advertisments are shown during the end credits, be sure to watch them. Nice "please think" movie, 3 out of 5 stars.

ratbag's review

"Mona Lisa Smile" shows us how it used to be in the 50s. It is surprising to note that not much has changed in all that time (we attended cooking and sewing classes at my school only less than a decade ago), and where there are changes, it wasn't necessarily for the better. The film shows that the prevailing attitude of that time was that the ultimate goal of all women was to be somebody's wife (even to a cheating, lying scumbag of a husband), regardless of their intelligence, talents and abilities, and that they must sacrifice all that to achieve that goal.

Amidst cheesy, useless scenes to remind us that the movie is set in the 50s (such as the maypole dancing scene), "Mona Lisa Smile" would not have fared quite as well if not for its strong female cast.