I don't think you came here to help people find their way, I think you came here to help people find your way.

Mona Lisa Smile runs into some tricky societal questions. As someone from a very leftist culture I have this basic negative reaction to the culture portrayed in the film, where these super bright girls were typecast in the roles they would play. I kept thinking: it's terrible that these girls are getting relegated to second class roles in their adult lives. But that's the thing, are they really second class roles? I certainly percieved them that way when watching, but I'm not sure how much of that is my prejiduce coming in and how much of that is the way the movie was written. The film did break the mold though with one major character standing up and saying that she wasn't being pushed into this role, she knew she had options and was choosing what she wanted to do based on what would make her happiest.

I guess thats the rub. I don't see stay at home parents as second class at all (I have to be gender neutral here since I think it's perfectly fine for Fathers to be home with the kids, it's what my Dad did.) I just get a bad reaction when people have an expectation to do that pushed on them. All this talk about the definition of marriage we're going through has caused me to think about some interesting things. Not all social progress is good, we leave some things behind. There's no question that currently in this country we've left behind a lot of things that helped families to be stable. I'm not saying I want to trade it all in, I think the changes have been good overall. But it's important for us to look back and see what we've given up, try to get some of that back.

This movie fits into this discussion quite well. It shows some of the limitations of that culture. Bright, talented women were shoehorned into only doing one thing, when maybe that wasn't the best fit for them. People in terrible relationships were forced to stay in them and lead unhappy lives. But what have we given up in trade? The movie doesn't really talk to that, it actually doesn't even so much hint that we have given something up. It's pretty one sided that way. But once again, like Lost In Translation, this is a well made movie that may or may not acccurately represent anything, but caused me to think about a bunch of stuff. That's good enough for me to like it.

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