BEFORE: Just five films left in the romance chain, including this one - the end is in sight. Just two Julia Roberts films, then 3 with Diane Lane, I can get through this now, no problem. The worst is behind me, right? Like "P.S. I Love You" and "Kicking and Screaming"? See, we need bad movies too, so we can appreciate OK ones and really good ones when they come along.
So now it's almost time to put the romance films back on the back burner, and let that part of the list grow a little bigger again - but what DIDN'T I get to this year? Somewhere between 40 and 50 films, if I count all the ones on Netflix that seem like they might count as romances, along with ones that are already in my collection on DVD, but I think I should take a few months before I start to look to see what might fit into a chain for next February. Oh, who am I kidding, they're already starting to coalesce into a loose chain for 2020. I've got three with Kevin Kline, including "Darling Companion" and "Dean", and that's going to dovetail neatly with a Mary Steenburgen chain ("Dean", "Book Club", and possibly "The Proposal"), which of course leads me to Sandra Bullock. I've got two with Reese Witherspoon ("Home Again" and "How Do You Know"), which could connect to an Owen Wilson thing, and then there are some classics like "Picnic" and "Paris When It Sizzles", both with William Holden, that could easily connect to a couple with Toni Collette ("In Her Shoes", and let's say "Muriel's Wedding"). A couple Kate Winslets, two with Gerard Butler and a few Anna Kendricks, and I might be on to something. I'll just have to treat these films like the bricks, and hope that when winter rolls around again, I can find the right mortar to slap a chain together from what know looks like a bunch of leftover odds and ends.
For now, Krysten Ritter carries over again from "The Hero", serving as my mortar between the Katherine Heigl films and the Julia Roberts films.
THE PLOT: A free-thinking art professor teaches conservative 1950's Wellesley girls to question their traditional social roles.
AFTER: Now, this film could easily have ended up in my annual August/September "Back to School" programming, but there's enough relationship-heavy material to justify putting it here. How did I decide between programming it here or there? Easy, I needed the linking, so that made my decision for me. (Arrgh, now I see the connection to the film "Wonder", which is also set at a school. Maybe I should have thought this through a little more.).
But this film can't help but belabor the point that 1953 was a different time, with different values, and that even in a women's college, they were part of a patriarchal system that educated women only to make them better wives and mothers, because that's what "society" expected of them. So, say farewell to all those feminist gains achieved during the war by Rosie the Riveter and all the other women working on the "Swing Shift", I guess. Men were expected to study science and engineering, and women were allowed to study poise and elocution, and (apparently) also Art History. Was the basket-weaving class already full? Never fear, because into this unfair system steps their intended savior, played of course by the star of the film, who arrives to tell them that it doesn't have to be this way, they can have careers and relationships too. Which seems odd, that she's the only person in 1953 who seems to believe this, so it's like she just time-traveled in from the year 2000.
The problem then becomes that most of these young women don't want to be "saved", in fact some of them can't even tell that the system isn't giving them a fair shake. So, "Mona Lisa Smile", which is it, are these girls smart or stupid? Can we make up our minds here? Where's the rebellion that one expects to find in each generation, don't any of these women want to step out of the shadow of their rich parents and go dancing at the local beatnik bar? No, I guess not.
Wellesley College later complained about the way they were portrayed here, because the filmmakers played a little fast and loose with the truth, in order to make more of a point about the 1950's. The college dean has a problem with Katherine teaching modern art, but in reality they'd been teaching modern art there for decades. Their student body in 1953 was also more racially diverse than this film suggests, with nearly every actor and actress here Caucasian. The staff was also not as conservative as suggested - even today Massachusetts is fairly liberal on most political points. The state may have a stuffy reputation, but it's well established as a "blue" state these days, and that didn't happen overnight. Even my parents were raised as conservative Catholics, but always voted Democratic, and then in the last decade I've manage to poke holes in so many right-wing fallacies that they've become much more liberal in their thinking.
But wait, college students were allowed to miss classes for weeks after they got married? In what universe did this happen? It's all part of this patriarchal system where the needs of the husbands have to come first, and there was NO WAY to schedule a honeymoon during the semester or summer break? I'm starting to think that the implication is that these women weren't serious about their studies, and only interested in college so they could find husbands. So, umm, why attend an all-girls school, then? For the mixers? This seemed like a bit of a stretch. But then, I don't claim to understand the sexual politics of the 1950's.
As a NITPICK POINT, there's a contradiction here, because if they set out to show that these women weren't serious about their studies, and therefore their careers, then how come the prank that they chose to play on the new art history teacher was to read the ENTIRE BOOK and do all the course-work before the first class? Wow, you girls really stuck it to her by doing all your homework in advance! Now she can take the whole semester off, because you already learned everything she was supposed to teach you! Wow, I bet she felt really embarrassed - sure, go on and take all the rest of the class on an independent study basis, while she goes on vacation. That could be the dumbest prank ever, "Hey, watch me spend all summer doing all this course-work, so the teachers will have nothing to teach me when class starts in September! Then I can devote all that time I would have spent in class on synchronized swimming and binge-drinking!"
Wait, why does Katherine break up with the guy she had a long-distance relationship with? Just because he proposed to her? That hardly seems like grounds for a break-up, unless this is Opposites Day or something. OK, so he just sort of assumed that she would say yes, but how is that suddenly a crime? And her choice of a rebound guy is the teacher who's noted for sleeping with his students? I realize this is set in 1953, but just HOW is that an improvement? I'm pretty sure that behavior was frowned upon, even back then. Oh, but he SAYS he won't do that again, right, because men are notorious for keeping their word on such things. Give me a break. The boyfriend in California did absolutely nothing wrong, except propose at a time when Katherine was feeling sort of anti-marriage. The Italian teacher is a proven liar, and I fail to see how this gives him an edge, or any sort of appeal, really. Later, due to an entirely different set of circumstances, she determines that he's not trustworthy. Gee, YA THINK SO?
NITPICK POINT #2 - why was there an a cappella group that sang at the Spring Fling, with 10 guys all singing the same melody? The whole point of an a cappella group is to have harmonies, if they're all going to sing the same note, you don't need 10 guys, you can get the same effect with 4 singers.
Also starring Julia Roberts (last seen in "Secret in Their Eyes"), Kirsten Dunst (last seen in "Hidden Figures"), Julia Stiles (last seen in "Jason Bourne"), Maggie Gyllenhaal (last seen in "Frank"), Ginnifer Goodwin (last heard in "Zootopia"), Dominic West (last heard in "Finding Dory"), Marcia Gay Harden (last seen in "Whip It"), John Slattery (last seen in "God's Pocket"), Juliet Stevenson (last seen in "Emma"), Marian Seides (last seen in "Town & Country"), Donna Mitchell (last seen in "The Book of Henry"), Terence Rigby, Topher Grace (last seen in "War Machine"), Laura Allen, Jordan Bridges (last seen in "J. Edgar"), Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Taylor Roberts, Lisa Roberts Gillan (last seen in "Mother's Day"), John Scurti, Annika Marks, Emily Bauer, Lily Rabe (last seen in "Vice"), with a cameo from Tori Amos.
RATING: 4 out of 10 slides of cave paintings
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