Nothing is as it seems. Review on Mona Lisa Smile Movie

To teach, you must know. You must know not just about the prescribed syllabus and ?suggested reading? but also what isn?t that obvious, the heart of the subject-the crux of education, the reason people want to learn. It is not enough to merely deliver the prescribed syllabus; there must be a fervent desire to actually teach, to coax your students to a position where they demand knowledge, and not information. Katherine Ann Watson is such a teacher.

The school she arrives to teach at in the mid 1950s, Wellesley, unfortunately is not one that encourages such teaching though. And therein lies the conflict. Actually it doesn?t. There is more opposition from the young minds that Watson is trying to mould, from her long-distance boyfriend, her current squeeze, even her landlady. But what?s a good fight without a few foes?

Mona Lisa Smile is Mike Newell?s new film that takes a look at education at the Wellesley College, a bedrock for the young women of this sleepy Eastern town of America of the 50's. Where the girls are smart, competitive and focused. On completing their graduation, and snagging a fine suitable young man to marry, and everything?s dandy and nice. Happily ever after? Apparently so, until the young teacher from California arrives to shake all the age-old concepts and beliefs out of the cobwebbed minds of the inmates of the college.

Coming of age, rights of passage films are a dime-a-dozen, and this film does fall in that category. There are redeeming aspects all right, but at the end of it all, we still have the protagonist (the teacher) fighting against tremendous odds to bring about change, managing to win over some tough and sometimes malicious opposition.

I will not get into the individual stories that make up the film. Suffice to say, Watson arrives with high hopes for a more meaningful life, is taken aback by the almost robotic pattern of life for most of the students, builds her image session by session with the initially resistant girls, gains their confidence and respect, and learns a few things along the way.

Not quite vini, vidi, vici, but a remarkable conquest to be sure. There are lessons to be learnt for her too. She finds that pre-conceived notions are not confined to the natives of the town, but also exist in some progressive minds as well, especially her own. It?s a time for self-discovery for student and teacher alike.

There are no memorable performances in this film for me. Julia Roberts does her usual bit, baring her big goofy grin when everything else fails. No, that?s not fair?she does give a reasonably hearty performance. So what if she looked like she was living in a completely different century from the rest of the cast. Did Newell forget to ask her to look the part of a 50s school teacher, or did her personal make-up guy/gal have artistic differences with the guy/gal hired for the film?

Of the others, Kirsten Dunst and Julia Stiles do a decent job. Bill Dunbar as the attractive love interest appears to have been meant as a prop, and us such passes muster. Marcia Gay Harden as the etiquette teacher is quite good, though wasted, and Ginnifer Goodwin as the unassuming Connie is quite endearing. The most notable act though is from Maggie Gyllenhaal, as the troubled Giselle. Her role was one that could easily have been overdone, but the control and calm with which she essays her character indicates a good-looking career up ahead. Godspeed, Ms Gyllenhaal!!

It seems a little too much to ask for sense in a movie that revolves around an exclusive school for girls, which seems intent on educating them to the noble intention of getting hem married off to ?the suitable boy?. Talk about education with purpose and ambition. The film does try to convey the message of female repression, and advocates the use of education for higher, more meaningful causes. But all in all, it does feel like a hundred other movies that told the same old story of a woman fighting against her time. Some much so that her costumes and look seemed to be from the 70?s to the 90?s. Time warp, anyone?