“Stop talking, and look. You're not required to write a paper. You're not even required to like it. You are required to consider it.”
I knew for a very long time, before I actually became a teacher, that I would grow up to be one. So, when my 15-year-old-self watched Mona Lisa Smile for the first time, I thought the movie was good. But what makes it a wonderful movie, I now realise, is that it made me think a lot - think about who I am as a person, what my place could be in the society, my potential, what it meant to be a ‘grown-up’, but above all, what it meant to be a teacher!
‘Mona Lisa Smile’ takes us through the journey of Katherine Ann Watson played by Julia Roberts, a 30-something woman who is taken on as a teacher of Art History at the prestigious Wellesley College in 1953. As soon as Katherine steps foot in Wellesley, she notices the cold stares and the conservative walls all around her making her even more determined to make a difference. She is stunned to find out that this very elite private school has classes on ‘poise’ and ‘how to be the perfect host at a dinner party’ for the girl students, whose only ambition after graduation is “biding their time until somebody proposes…”. She is dismayed by this matrimonial tunnel vision.
Katherine feels she is well-prepared for her first class, but the students make her realise that she would need to do much more in order to ‘teach’ them something they did not already know. The students scorn her for background that lacks pedigree and class. She has a fierce adversary in Betty Warren (Kirsten Dunst), who often insults her in the class and even publicly humiliates her by calling her ‘promiscuous’ and ‘subversive’. She fights back by challenging the girls to think beyond the paint, techniques and opinions of the conservatives.
Slowly, the students start warming up to her. She encourages a brilliant young student Joan Brandwyn (Julia Stiles) to apply to Yale Law School. Katherine is shocked when Joan decides not to go to Yale and get married. This is one of the best scenes in the movie… Katherine tries to convince Joan that it is possible to have both a family and a career. While Joan thinks that may be true, she has the right to choose one over the other, and that by choosing family, she does not become any less intelligent. This is a lesson for Katherine - while trying to avoid the judgmental people around her, she too had become judgmental.
She inspires Giselle Levy (Maggie Gyllenhaal) to think of herself as something more than just an attractive young woman. She makes another young student Constance Baker (Ginnifer Goodwin) realise that a person’s nature, qualities and abilities are more important than external beauty. Gradually, for all her bitterness and hostility, even Betty Warren realises what a good teacher Katherine is.
For the students, Katherine is like coming up for a breath of fresh air after being underwater for too long. Towards the end of the movie, we witness a heart-touching scene where the girls follow Katherine on bicycles, trying to keep up with her as she is leaving Wellesley in a cab.
Even though the movie is considered by many to be all about Feminism, I like it more for the subtlety and delicacy in the way director Mike Newall tells the audience all about being a teacher. The role of a teacher is not limited to a classroom, a subject or a textbook. The ultimate aim is to see our students succeed in life on their terms. We also see how it is not just the teacher who teaches students… quite often, it is the students who educate the teacher and make her better.
If you watched the movie a long time ago like me, it is time to watch again. For those who haven’t – sit back, relax and watch an awesome actor play the role of an amazing teacher….
-Apoorva Apte
Full-time faculty, ELTIS