Mona Lisa Smile

Mona Lisa Smile (2003) is a Mike Newell drama starring Julia Roberts you can watch online on iFILM. In the autumn of 1953, a free-thinking art history teacher arrives at the buttoned-up women's college of Wellesley.

Katherine Watson grew up in California and likes a good argument. Wellesley does not. Its students are groomed for marriage, not careers, and they recite the syllabus before she even opens her mouth. Katherine pushes them to think for themselves. The toughest case is Betty (Kirsten Dunst), a sharp-tongued top student who treats the newcomer as a threat. Around her orbit the restless Joan (Julia Stiles), the rule-breaking Giselle (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and the lovestruck Connie (Ginnifer Goodwin).

Set against postwar America, where a woman's future was mapped out in advance, the film makes its case through five lives rather than speeches. Dominic West and Juliet Stevenson round out the cast. Stream Mona Lisa Smile (2003) online on iFILM.