Mona Lisa Smile

Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment, 12

***

Julia Roberts's first real girly ensemble piece since 1989's Steel Magnolias is this surprise-free feel-good movie about an art history teacher (Roberts) in a 1950s college trying to liberate the girls in her charge before liberation became fashionable.

Her allstar charges include Kirsten Dunst's bitch, Julia Stiles's good girl and Maggie Gyllenhaal's slut. But despite this kind of characterisation-by-numbers, this female Dead Poets Society, with its righteous sentiment and its stars, will probably make an ideal accompaniment to a slobby girls' night in. Various featurettes on the DVD.