Mona Lisa Smile

I watched the film Mona Lisa Smile for the second time the other day. I like it much better the second time around. Sort of a girl's Dead Poets Society. However, there is the usual sexual immorality in it. It is interesting in that it deals with the tension of priorities in a woman's life, though no where near as well as Dorothy Sayers does in Gaudy Night. The best part is where Julia Stiles' character says to her teacher that you can be intelligent and married and have a family. It's a very good couple of lines. And I think it does portray pretty well the unhappiness of those whose joy is found in a husband alone and those whose joy is found in a career alone. Without Christ, both of these are dead end roads. But it ends with an incredibly stupid quote: "Not all who wander are aimless. Especially not those who seek truth beyond tradition, beyond definition, beyond the image." I like the bit about non-aimeless wandering - shades of Tolkien's "not all those who wander are lost"; and yes, truth beyond tradition, beyond the image is something we should be seeking, but truth beyond DEFINITION. Gotta love Hollywood post-modernism. How can you have a definition-less truth - it ceases to be truth. It becomes whatever you want it to be. But irritating closing lines aside, if you can get past the sexual immorality, it's an interesting and thought provoking film.