My Mother Frank

Fifty one year old widow Francis "Frank" Kennedy (Sinead Cusack) leads a boring life dominated by devout Roman Catholicism and an over-protective attitude to her university student son David (Matthew Newton). Her friend Jean (Lynette Curran) wants her to open a dress shop while David suggests she enrol in a course of some kind. After initial hesitation Frank enrols at the same campus as David, where conservative and chauvanistic Professor Mortlock (Sam Neill) seems determined to make her education as difficult as possible. After suffering humiliations culminating with the threat of expulsion, Frank takes on Mortlock while also confronting a personal crisis.