Introduction to Painting--Wellesley College, 1954
With any luck, The Prime of Miss Julia Roberts has moved over to the second-run houses in your town, too. One reviewer called it the weirdest commercial release of 2003; "science fiction commissioned by a liberationist task force 30 years too late." And, well, let's be honest: a shameless bid for career revitalization by Ms. Roberts, lifted directly from the Robin Williams playbook.
While the cinetrix harbors a sick fascination for this feature, she has yet to see it. However, I recently stumbled across this letter the two producers, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Deborah Schindler, wrote to Wellesley. Here's an excerpt:
We did not set out to make a documentary. We sought to take a snapshot of a time more than an institution and to illuminate the lack of choice available to most women in the country in the early 1950s. We've received an overwhelming response from young women who, after seeing the film, are finding that the same career vs. family issues which were relevant then, are relevant now. We are proud that the film is serving as a reminder that liberation comes not from what you've chosen, but from having the ability to choose.
One hundred years ago, many colleges and universities barred women from attending. Wellesley, along with a handful of other institutions, were the exceptions. While we can learn much from the exceptions, we can also learn from the rule. But to suggest that one college in the nation was exempt from that rule is inaccurate, and revisionist. We celebrate Wellesley not only for what it is, but for what it was. Their history is our history and serves as a reminder for how far women have come.
The head of the cinetrix may explode.
Not because of the sisterhood is powerful cant these ladies think will help make their case. If anything, I suspect any Wellesley grad would disassociate herself doublequick fast from women with such poor grasps on history and logic. Not even because they chose to send a letter demonstrating almost complete ignorance of subject-verb agreement, punctuation, and other grammar basics to some of the smartest women going.
No, mostly I think they're full of shit because they think that any young woman watching Julia Freakin' Roberts is going experience a moment of clarity about her own life, much less come away thinking, "I had my doubts before, but Julia's right. We have come a long way, baby." Please. "[L]iberation comes not from what you've chosen, but from having the ability to choose"?
Look at Ms. Julia herself. Remember all the young women who achieved liberation by breaking up a couple [My Best Friend's Wedding; paging the first Mrs. Moder!] or taking a legger from their own nuptials [Runaway Bride; hi, Kiefer!]? Or who chose to be whores with hearts of gold after Roberts' turn in Pretty Woman? [Oh, wait.]
Roberts' long reign as America's Sweetheart has given her the "ability to choose" to produce a star vehicle for herself even as she gets too old to be cast as an ingenue by the Hollywood system that made her. Basically, Mona Lisa Smile is all about Roberts' feeding off the vitality of her starlet costars. What's next--a bio pic about Elizabeth Bathory?
The Italians have a word to explain Mona Lisa's smile: sfumato. It means blurry, ambiguous, and up to the imagination. Ms. Roberts' smile has oft been celebrated, but unlike that of La Gioconda, it has never left anything up to our imaginations.
