Would Mona Lisa Frown?

Yesterday night I had the opportunity to see the movie Mona Lisa Smile. To tell you the truth, I thought it would be a whole lot better than it was, even though I did not have very high expectations for it to begin with. Instead, I came away with the impression that the movie has almost no redeeming qualities in it. The story is of how a conservative college during the fifties obsessed with tradition becomes more liberal after a year with new art history teacher. The movie praises sexual freedom and condemnes the rules and social standards that are in place. A school nurse who gives out contraceptives becomes a heroic martyr, a teacher who frequently sleeps around is "prince charming", marriage is for wimpy women, and there are no moral standards to say that anything is right or wrong. The message of the movie was that everyone should do what feels good and seems right to them. One of the only truths that I found in the movie was how weak and silly traditions are when they have nothing to back them up.