★ 7 / 10
As with "Blood Brothers", Willy Russell has created
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As with "Blood Brothers", Willy Russell has created another wonderfully evocative scenario for a bored, alcoholic "Professor Bryant" (Michael Caine) who finds…
As with "Blood Brothers", Willy Russell has created another wonderfully evocative scenario for a bored, alcoholic "Professor Bryant" (Michael Caine) who finds himself tutoring aspiring working-class "Rita" (Julie Walters). She is the product of a state education system that has given her the rudiments but she needs more; she wants to be able to make her own choices - and they don't necessarily include settling down with her husband and having babies. Initially she is as daunted as she is inspired by the more intellectual environment he, and his students, inhabit but gradually their personalities entwine as it becomes clear that "Bryant" has plenty of demons in his own life - exemplified well by girlfriend "Julia" and her clumsily disguised affair with fellow lecturer Michael Williams' "Brian", as well as by his dependency on Scotch! On the face of it, the plot is really quite predictable, but that simplicity belies the real issues that many women faced when attempting to break free from their class-bound cycle of responsibilities of home and hearth, even in as late as the 1980s. The humour is frequent, dry and pithy with a fun, and quite telling contribution from Maureen Lipman as "Trish", the new flatmate who simply adores Mahler. The score could have been orchestrated a bit better - the synthesised sound is a bit amateur; and at times - like the original play - it drags a little, but that all serves to give us a little more of idea as to what makes both of them really tick - she is prepared to sacrifice much for her opportunity. Caine & Walters are superb, plausible and likeable in equal measure delivering a poignant story of salvation for both of them. It lost out to "Terms of Endearment" & "Tender Mercies" at the Oscars - which is a shame; it is much more memorable than either of those...
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★ 6 / 10
Educating Rita (1983)
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Directed by Lewis Gilbert. Starring Michael Caine, Julie Walters, Malcolm Douglass, Jeananne Crowley, Michael Williams, Maureen Lipman, Dearbhla Molloy…
Directed by Lewis Gilbert. Starring Michael Caine, Julie Walters, Malcolm Douglass, Jeananne Crowley, Michael Williams, Maureen Lipman, Dearbhla Molloy, Godfrey Quigley. (PG)Young working class woman from Liverpool (Walters) decides to get an education in English Literature from cynical, unenthusiastic professor Caine, who doesn't think much of her potential at first, but is eventually won over by her earnestness and rough charm. Mostly enjoyable spin on the "Pygmalion" concept was adapted by Willy Russell from his two-character stage play, but the efforts to expand it into a more fully-fleshed film don't work--the most intriguing scenes are the ones between Caine and Walters, while the added material involving their personal lives away from the university offer little besides clichés and repetition. For a movie so devoted to learning through classic literature and poetry, it is remarkably disinterested in exploring what about those written works are so rewarding (name dropping, on the other hand...). Walters scores in her film debut (she originated the role on stage), while Caine is terrific; but then, when he's not slumming it with mechanical sharks, Steven Seagal, and the like, when is he ever not?62/100
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