Featuring memorable performances from some Hollywood's top actresses, this delightful film - released in 2003 - is about one woman's struggle to bring feminism to a stuffy school for girls in the early 1950s.
Julia Roberts (pictured) stars as Katherine Ann Watson, a spirited feminist graduate who moves to Massachusetts to teach at the prestigious Wellesley College. She's keen to spread her message of female empowerment among the young and impressionable students, who include Kirsten Dunst as Betty Warren, Julia Stiles as Joan Brandwyn and Maggie Gyllenhaal as Giselle Levy.
When they are first introduced to their new teacher, the girls are set in their ways and disinterested. They already have one eye on finding a husband and settling down, which, despite their obvious intelligence, makes their education something of a secondary priority.
This being 1953, Katherine strives to convince the girls that they can become success stories in their own right. What she is meant to be teaching them, though, is art history, and when the school's directors learn what is going on in her classes, they fire out a warning for her to change her unorthodox ways. Katherine bonds with the girls and finds that each of them possesses an incredible inner strength and willingness to learn. Perhaps they will fulfil their potential as individuals after all.
Mona Lisa Smile is a Film programme that first aired in 2003 and has been classified a 12 certificate.
