Where was Mona Lisa Smile filmed?

The film Mona Lisa Smile starts by introducing the audience to Katherine, who is played by Julia Roberts. The year is 1953, and she has been asked to teach art history at Wellesley College in New York. Like much of the campus scenes, the shots of Katherine arriving and teaching her first class were filmed on location at the actual Wellesley College.

Betty is heard in a voice-over during this time, “All her life, she had wanted to teach at Wellesley College. So, when a position opened in the Art History department, she pursued it single-mindedly until she was hired. It was whispered that Katherine Watson, a first-year teacher from Oakland State, made up in brains what she lacked in pedigree. Which was why this bohemian from California was on her way to the most conservative college in the nation.”

During the first class, she is expecting to go over the syllabus and introduce them to the textbook but finds out the students have read everything. Katherine decides to discuss what makes good art instead.

The character Betty Warren speaks out to say there is one standard for good art, and not everything is art.

Betty says, “Art isn't art until someone says it is.”

When asked who must say art is good she says, “the right people.”

This first class introduces Katherine to all of the students she will grow to know over the school year, and it is also the scene that shows the feud that will grow between Betty and Katherine.

In one of the earlier scenes of Mona Lisa Smile, Betty marries her fiancé, Spencer. This is all that she has been looking forward to for most of her life, and she believes all women should be married and housewives. The scene where Betty gets married was filmed in Boston, New York at the St. Augustine Catholic Church. Following the wedding, Betty misses multiple classes, and Katherine confronts her about it during one of the classes that she does attend.

Katherine tells her, “Since your wedding, you've missed six classes, a paper and your midterm.”

Betty states she was busy with her honeymoon and getting the house ready and feels she should be excused.

Another student, Connie, tells Katherine, “Most of the faculty turn their heads when the married students miss a class or two.”

Katherine’s response to that is, “Well then why not get married as a freshman? That way you could graduate without actually ever stepping foot on campus.”

Katherine refuses to give Betty any kind of special treatment and threatens to fail her if she does not start putting in the work.

Mona Lisa Smile is a drama film, and one of the most dramatic scenes of the movie comes when Betty is faced with her husband’s affair. She is at a loss for what to do, so goes to her mother for advice. However, her mom does not offer support for her daughter, and urges her to go back to Spencer. Betty’s mother believes a wife should stand by her husband, and her views are revealed during a discussion with her daughter near Mona Lisa painting.

Betty references the painting by saying, “Look at this, mother. She's smiling. Is she happy?”

Her mother says, “The important thing is not to tell anyone.”

Betty continues talking about the painting to say, “She looks happy, so what does it matter?”

Not getting support from her mother causes a rift between the two.

Like many other shots in the movie, this was filmed in Manhattan, New York.

Katherine spends some time during the movie Mona Lisa Smile dating a character named Bill, another professor at the school. He had plenty of stories about his time as a war hero, but Katherine learns he has not been truthful about that and decides to dump him.

When he has been found out, Bill says, “You're so perfect, it's impossible to be honest with you.”

Bill also brings up a student of Katherine’s, Joan, who chose life as a housewife over pursuing a career in law school.

He tells Katherine, “It's not just me, Katherine. Joan failed you too, right?”

Katherine says, “That's an awful thing to say.”

Bill tells Katherine her motives for teaching aren’t what she thinks. He says she is more concerned about what she wants.

Bill says, “I know, but it's the truth. You want honest, I can be real honest. You didn't come to Wellesley to help people find *their* way, you came to Wellesley to help people find *your* way.”

After her marriage has fallen apart, Betty has to decide what to do. Her mother wants her to go back to her husband, but she refuses. Instead, Betty decides that her and Giselle will find an apartment to live in together. She seeks out Katherine for help at first.

Betty asks her teacher, “Miss Watson, can you help me get in touch with that friend of yours in Greenwich Village?”

Betty’s mother is also there and asks what her daughter is after in Greenwich Village.

Betty tells her mother, “An apartment. I filed for a divorce this morning. And since we know I'm not welcome in your house. You remember Giselle Levy? What did you call her? "A New York Kike", that's it. Well, we're going to be roommates.”

This scene was filmed in Wellesley, Massachusetts, like many of the other scenes in Mona Lisa Smile.

At the end of Mona Lisa Smile, Katherine is invited to return as a professor during the next school year. However, she would need to stick close to the curriculum and would not have the free teaching range she had the first year.

Katherine chooses instead to go to Europe and travel. As she leaves in a taxi, her former students gather to see her off. Betty can be heard in another voice-over, having grown to admire and respect Katherine.

Betty can be heard saying, “My teacher, Katherine Watson, lived by her own definition, and would not compromise that. Not even for Wellesley. I dedicate this, my last editorial, to an extraordinary woman who lived by example and compelled us all to see the world through new eyes.

By the time you read this, she'll be sailing to Europe, where I know she'll find new walls to break down and new ideas to replace them with. I've heard her called a quitter for leaving, an aimless wanderer. But not all who wander are aimless. Especially not those who seek truth beyond tradition; beyond definition; beyond the image. We'll never forget you.”

This final scene was filmed in Wellesley, Massachusetts like most of the movie.