User reviews

Michael Caine and TV favourite Julie Walters shine wonderfully in this film, which tells the story of 26-year-old Rita (Walters) wanting to discover herself by attending the Open University, where alcohol dependant Dr. Frank Bryant (Caine) is a teacher.

The movie follows these two main characters change and reevaluate their lives for the better through each other. Caine and Walters' chemistry is simply divine, and Maureen Lipman also makes an appearance as over the top and eccentric Trish, who on the outside, is this confident, bubbly woman, but on the inside is hurting badly because of her fears of being alone.

Both Caine and Walters won Best Actor and Best Actress awards for their performances (at the BAFTAs), and the movie itself won Best Film in 1984, and one look at Educating Rita tells you why. It's a film that's simply full of warmth and charm.

A strong British film and the perfect debut for the now legendary Julie Walters.

In London, the twenty-seven year-old hairdresser Rita (Julie Walters) decides to complete her basic education before having children as desired by her husband Denny (Malcolm Douglas). She joins the literature course in an open university and has tutorial with the middle-aged Dr. Frank Bryant (Michael Caine) that is an alcoholic and deluded professor from the upper-class without self-esteem. Frank lives with the also Professor Julia (Jeananne Crowley) and they have a loveless relationship; Julia has a love affair with the dean Brian (Michael Williams). The amusing Rita gives motivation to Frank to prepare her for the exams to join the university while she leaves Denny and moves to the house of the waitress Trish (Maureen Lipman), who loves Gustav Mahler and is a cult woman. Will she succeed in the exams?

"Educating Rita" is an unknown little gem with a dramatic and funny story about culture clash and improvement of life status through education. The plot partially recalls the storyline of "Pigmalion" or "My Fair Lady" with the change of behavior of Rita through the education. The screenplay has little details that might be unobserved by the viewer, like for example Frank's bottle of whiskey hidden behind the book "The Lost Weekend" and witty dialogues. The top-notch Michael Caine has one of his best performances in the role of a refined and cultured man without self-esteem that finds motivation in life after finding a simple woman that gives a different perspective view of life for him. Julie Walters is simply fantastic. The result is a very human story of friendship that has not aged. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Despertar de Rita" ("The Awakening of Rita")

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

People who have experienced the mid-life crisis will be at home with this movie, as 26 year old hairdresser, Rita (Julie Walters), is pressurised into settling down with boyfriend Denny. Not only is this an un-needed pressure, but her father is plaguing her about when she is going to have children, but all Rita wants to do is find herself and take up something new. Her common touch and wonderful idiosyncrasies bring a breath of fresh air to snotty high class life, but when she goes to Dr. Frank Bryant (Michael Caine) to not only improve her lexicon, but to improve her image she begins a journey of blood and tears. Frank is assigned to tutor her, and from the start their personalities resonate the human touch.

Dr. Frank Bryant's marriage has gone down the pan, and his current girlfriend is playing away. On top of this he has hit the bottle and can only get through the day of teaching the young toffs, with a blend of his lecturing skills and the drink. He is jaded, he is tired of the same lecture routines, and he cannot understand why these students want to discuss the finer points of Blake. But Rita is new and fresh, initially Rita doesn't possess the skills required to write analytical essays; but she is different, she is vibrant, she is funny and she is unbelievably up front. As their relationship blossoms and Rita starts to find herself, she becomes increasingly drawn to the student way of life, and when Franks life is enriched because of her presence and her willingness to learn he sends her to a summer camp, to be educated at a greater level.

However, Rita's return with a change of character surprises Frank, and soon they drift away from their zany, affectionate meetings. Educating Rita is funny, expressive, sentimental, poignant and sad, as Frank must come to terms with the young bird fleeing the nest, whilst Rita begins to realize what she is becoming. With one thing gained, many other things are lost, and with Frank's increasing drinking problem because of Rita's character change, the two are headed for disaster. Both Caine and Walters give amazingly touching performances, and throughout I felt myself urging them to each other, only to know deep down that the age gap is just too much. Not many films make the audience care enough about relationships and circumstances, but this brilliant movie not only gets the audience committed to their plight, but also feels the full range of emotions.

When Rita gives her own interpretation of what assonance is, Bryant finds himself chuckling away to himself and realising that she is indeed right. What is especially touching is the way that Bryant wants Rita to stay as she is, because life has so little characters left for him. What she wants to become is everything that Bryant wants to forget, and there begins a sentimental tug of war. In between the funny moments, and plot directions is the feeling that life has more to offer than just being able to talk fluently about past authors, something which Bryant is driven to distraction over. But the movie nevertheless doesn't miss a moment to entertain and take the characters to our hearts, ensuring that Educating Rita remains a film classic.

Rita White, a young Liverpool hairdresser, enrols on an Open University course to study literature. (This is a scheme in Britain whereby adults can study for a degree at home). In Willie Russell's original stage play, there were only two characters, Rita and her tutor Frank Bryant. The screenplay (also written by Russell) opens up the action to bring in other characters, but Rita and Frank are still very much at the centre.

They are very different. She is intelligent with a sharp wit, but with little formal schooling, whereas he is a highly qualified middle-class academic. She has not enrolled in higher education in her mid-twenties to earn more money or to get a better job, but rather because she believes in education for its own sake. She wants to study literature as a means of self-realisation and as a way of getting a wider perspective on the world. As she puts it, she "wants to sing a better song". In doing so, however, she comes into conflict with her working-class family, who have no sympathy with her intellectual aspirations, and her cheerfully Philistine husband Denny, whose only desire is to start raising a family.

The irony of the film is that Frank possesses what Rita most earnestly desires- learning and culture- but does not appreciate it. In his youth, when he was a published poet, he doubtless shared her ideals, but now in middle age he is a bored, cynical alcoholic. He gave up writing poetry after the breakdown of his marriage and his relationship with his girlfriend Julia is also collapsing. (She is having an affair with one of his colleagues). He turns up drunk to lectures and mocks his students and the university authorities. Although he still earns a living from teaching literature, he has lost his enthusiasm for the subject.

Despite their differences, Rita and Frank become friends, probably because he retains just enough idealism to be touched by her naive enthusiasm. This comes across in the scene where she rushes to tell him of her excitement at seeing a production of "Macbeth" or the one where he introduces her to Blake. Initially Rita has more enthusiasm for the subject than understanding, but she makes good progress, and is eventually able to discuss literature on equal terms with Frank's college students. She becomes a waitress, which gives her more time to study. Her appearance changes; originally a bleached blonde in mini-skirt and high heels she returns to her natural brunette looks and dresses more conservatively. She reverts to her real name, Susan, abandoning "Rita" which she adopted in honour of the writer Rita Mae Brown.

Frank, however, is not happy with the change in her personality. He has become disillusioned with the idea that culture is desirable, and dislikes the way in which the naive but spontaneous and amusing Rita has given way to the more analytical, intellectually aware Susan, whom he sees as pretentious. (He insists on calling her "Rita" even after she has ceased using the name). He accuses himself of being a Frankenstein who has created a monster, and her of singing not a better song, merely a different one which on her lips sounds shrill, hollow and tuneless. This, of course, causes difficulties between them. Susan's success has been achieved at considerable personal cost because her marriage to Denny has collapsed- he burnt her course-books in a fit of rage after discovering that she was taking the Pill in order to delay having children- and she has become estranged from her family, who sided with Denny over the divorce.

If this had been a Hollywood production, it would doubtless have been made as a traditional rom-com, with a happy ending as Frank and Susan fall in love. What we actually have is a film of ideas, with a much more ambiguous ending. The central question is "What is the value of culture and education?" Should one value these things, or question their value as Frank does? Although some reviewers have sympathised with Frank, my sympathies are with Susan; his belittling of her aspirations seems patronising, and there is some justice in her accusations that he liked her better in the early days of their relationship because he was amused by her ignorance and naivety. His apparent disillusionment with his own achievements may reflect not humility but rather a deeper arrogance- the arrogance of the man who mistakes his own cynical nihilism for a higher wisdom.

If that analysis of the film makes it seem very serious, it is not- it is often very funny with some wonderful lines delivered in two great performances by Julie Waters and Michael Caine. (There is also a brilliant, and very memorable, synthesiser score from David Hentschel).

I did not like the sub-plot involving Susan's flatmate Trish, a suicidally depressed culture-vulture, played by Maureen Lipman as an exaggerated caricature. ("Wouldn't you just die without Maaahler?") I also felt an opportunity was lost by filming in Dublin rather than Liverpool. Doubtless the Irish authorities offered a better financial deal, but it meant that the film lacks the authentic sense of place which marks so many of the best British films.

Those reservations apart, however, I loved the film. Its combination of wit, great dialogue, warmth and intellectual depth made it, in my view, easily the best film of 1983. Unfortunately, its chances of winning an Oscar were sabotaged by the fact that the British film industry was going through a brief but brilliant revival in the early eighties and British films- "Chariots of Fire" and "Gandhi"- had achieved the unprecedented feat of winning "Best Picture" in two successive years. A British hat-trick would have been a hurt to American national pride too serious to bear, so "Best Picture" went instead to that horrible tear-jerker "Terms of Endearment". 9/10

Willy Russell does a reasonably good job of transforming his witty play into a film script here, however the new supporting characters that he includes add nothing to the material, and the film really could have done without most of the scenes that involve them. Aside from that, a continuity error or two, and inappropriate choices of music choices, everything else is here is quite good. Caine and Walters are both superb, not overplaying their characters at all, which easily could have been done. Some of the best witty lines are preserved from the play, as are the ideas about switching teacher-student relationships. It is not a perfect film, and the material suits a two-character play much better, however this is still a great on-screen vision the play.

What a novel concept - a college movie that isn't about frat parties! Since "Educating Rita" is one of the only movies which explores the true value of schooling, it remains close to this nerd's heart. In fact, in a rather weird conjunction with "Rocky," it inspired me to leave my lousy office job and get a graduate degree - to better meself, as Rita might say.

What are the criticisms here - too long, too stagey, silly synth music? This is not my idea of a slow movie. I like the characters enough to stick with them, even if they aren't...well...moving around much! Surely their personal conflicts are interesting enough to keep me watching, even in the absence of car chases and explosions.

Walters and Caine are likable, the message is empowering (but realistic - Rita really suffers when she tries to change her life), and, just for a change, alcoholism is treated as a serious problem. Is it too sentimental? Well, I always cry. Or at least sniffle. I think that means the movie is moving, rather than sentimental.

Enough defensiveness - this movie is lovely! Where's the American DVD release, then?

What delights me most about this movie is that in early 2006 it finally came out on DVD. There is a minor glitch in the establishing scene at the beginning, but to see Rita once again in widescreen is almost like seeing it for the very first time.

Educating Rita is one of many re-tellings of Shaw's Pygmalion, itself based on a Greek myth, so the story is nothing new. Rita, as so many great British films, is based on a play, in this case by Willie Russell, who also collaborated with director Lewis Gilbert, who, in addition to directing several Bond features, also directed Michael Caine in his Oscar nominated title role in Alfie, on the delightful Shirley Valentine, cast in a similar vein. It would be easy to think of Rita as My Fair Lady without the Marne Nixon voice overs, but that would be, as a classmate of Rita's puts it, facile.

The combination of Michale Caine and Julie Walters is pure magic. Unlike Dudley Moore's lovable drunk, Caine's Frank Bryant is a drunk that is difficult to love, which makes him far more interesting. He wallows, not in self pity, which would be disgusting, but in the infinitely sadder depths of self acceptance and resignation to shortcomings. He is a failed drunken poet who has lost the capacity to feel his own life.

Enter Rita, a hairdresser who wants to learn literary criticism, but more importantly, learn a way out of a life that she feels all too well. From his jaundiced perspective, Frank fears that educating Rita would transform her into just another one of the lifeless women that litter his life, but Rita will not be denied. Gradually, through voracious consumption of the Canon of Western Literature, Rita learns what she believes to be a better song to sing.

But it's not that simple. Rita finds that people, even educated people, in the end, have only themselves to cling to, and Shaw, Blake, Ibsen and Chekov may help fill up the empty moments, but they can't take away the emptiness itself. What does Rita want? Frank? A baby? Her ex-husband? No. What Rita wants is choices, and the freedom to choose among them for herself, and getting there is warm and moving drama that elevates Educating Rita among the absolute best of its era and genre.

David Hentschel's synthesized soundtrack is absolutely wonderful. It is by now so obviously from another era that it allows you to be drawn even more into the film, giving it a more timeless than dated feel. The supporting cast is wonderful, including Michael Williams, who, aside from being Mr. Judi Densch for the last thirty years of his life, also received a Papal knighthood, and classically renowned actress Maureen Lipman who was later awarded a C.B.E. for her work in British theatre.

Ultimately, however, it is the sheer magic of Caine and Walters, no less so than with Harrison and Hepburn in My Fair Lady, that gives Rita the boundless charm, wit, and passion that have made it one of my favorite films of all time.

This award winner is a version of the Pygmalion story with alcoholic professor Michael Caine teaching literature to working class hairdresser Julie Walters. Great acting in this one from both leads and it's a quality production all round, considering the story-line could be very trite really easily. Great stuff. On the downside, like a lot of British films from the 80's, the soundtrack is truly abysmal.

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...

I'm always upset when I start watching a film that seems like it has the potential to be something really special and moving and by the time it's done it leaves me angry. Angry because I hate to see the good in a movie go to waste by the bad. Educating Rita is one of the best examples of this that I can think of in recent memory.

I think Educating Rita has very good intentions - it's trying to make us believe that people can change for the better if they really put their minds to it. It's a nice thought, but one that is pounded needlessly into our head for nearly two hours. I like a good triumphant story as much as the next person but it seems like the scenes never cover any different ground than the first two scenes. Much of the dialogue seems like filler - instead of letting us experience these characters each scene feels like it has an agenda to further the story to that final moment that we've been waiting for. This makes Educating Rita sometimes poignant, but often hollow. By the time the film ends, we haven't experienced much.

But credit is due where credit is due and that honor goes solely to the performances of Michael Caine and Julie Walters. Their chemistry (when the script isn't feeding them useless dialogue) is wonderful. Sadly though, this isn't enough to evoke much emotion. We only get to be with these characters for one or two scenes are different points in her education and there are so many time lapses that it rushes right by. Which is to say, that I think Educating Rita moves by much too fast! This is a film where I would have loved to spend more time with these characters. Given a better script, I would have been able to sit through another hour with these two people.

There is a marvelous scene where Julie Walters runs to Caine's class just because she wanted to tell him that she saw and loved a Shakespeare play and Caine is touched that she told him first. It's one of the few scenes that evoke any emotion and it's a moment so great that the rest of the film doesn't even come close. If only Educating Rita had more honest moments and less filler.

** out of ****

"Educating Rita" is not a huge motion picture. It portrays no earth shattering events. It teaches no overpowering moral lessons. It does not look into the depths of the human soul. This is a little motion picture, but like many little things, it is wonderful.

Educating Rita is really a filmed stage play. Julie Walters played the part of Rita on the stage. Michael Caine joins her as Frank in the film version and really puts his heart into the performance. The author shows you surprisingly little about the two characters and yet tells you a very great deal, and most importantly, he lets them grow as they must, not necessarily as we'd wish them to.

I cannot recommend this film highly enough. Watch it with somebody you like.

This wonderfully engaging and thought provoking movie far surpassed my expectations. It's an unusual variation on the old teacher / student story but with a mature twist that asks the viewer the question... Just which one of this pair is doing the teaching here, and exactly what is the subject?

Dr. Frank Bryant is an older, jaded, alcoholic college English professor. He's weary of the snobbish academic world, which he mocks with contempt, and weary of dissecting meaning out of literature for the pretentious but unenthusiastic students in his classes. He's assigned to tutor Rita, a feisty, uneducated Liverpool hairdresser / housewife in her mid 20's, who has enrolled in a college class to improve her language skills and also really to develop her mind. Frank finds Rita literally a breath of fresh air, chuckling at her amusing definition of the word 'assonance' and uncharacteristically moved by her candor, her respect for education, her bubbling eagerness to learn and develop. Frank actually prefers that she remain exactly as she is, fearing she'll come to resemble the pompous snobs to which he's grown all too accustomed, walking the halls of academia all around him.

Both teacher and student here already have 'significant others'. Frank is romantically involved with another teacher, Julia, who is carrying on an affair literally under his nose, so his personal life is in equivalent shambles to his professional situation. Rita is married to the uneducated, working class Denny, who's eager to start a family. She is secretly taking birth control pills, wanting to explore her own and life's possibilities before having children. Obviously conflict emerges here between this couple, with Denny actually quite a sympathetic character. He's not the villain of the piece at all (from my viewpoint), even though he does burn Rita's books, certainly not something to applaud. He just wants the simple things of life, obviously disapproving of his wife's educational endeavors for fear she'll grow away from him.

Michael Caine, in the role he was born to play, is completely convincing as the drunken, disillusioned Frank, who cannot get through his day without a drink. Julie Walters is equally perfect as Rita...first the earlier blonde, uneducated but academically keen housewife / hairdresser, and later the sophisticated woman into which she's transformed.

The dialogue is witty, and the rich relationship that develops between Frank and Rita compelling. No sex scenes here, just discussions of literature and mainly of life. These are two memorable characters that will truly engage your concern. After some additional courses abroad, Rita undergoes an amazing Pygmalion style metamorphosis in admittedly, as some have criticized, a rather unbelievably short time. She is transformed from the original naive, uneducated, working class housewife to a sophisticated literary critic...though her core, in my opinion, remains fundamentally unchanged.

As for the ending, I won't give it away. Will a May December romance emerge from all this tutelage as with that other Pygmalion pair, Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle, of My Fair Lady fame? Or will these two ultimately go their separate ways, each altered forever by the other's influence? Personally, the moving, emotional ending left me feeling satisfied that the screenwriters had done their job right. Don't miss this sparkling and intelligent movie which casts attitudes toward education in such a compelling light.

This 1983 film is based on a London play by Willy Russell and is about a British working-class hairdresser who is determined to further herself and realizes how much her efforts are changing the way she views her friends and family... and herself. I did like it, because of Caine and Walters performance and for the questions it raises, but one thing I found downright jarring was composer David Hentschel's score which is performed on a synthesizer which is a scary example of early 1980s lack of sensitivity when it came to exploring this genre. 7/10.

Whatever its faults and flaws might be, I've never been able - or wanted to - get 'Educating Rita' out of my head. What makes it so memorable, such a touchstone? Is it Julie Walters's expressive face? Is it Michael Caine's professor being chivvied from his sodden rut by the pixilated yet determined Rita? Is it the wit and good humor and Rational-enquiry-and-argument-as-drama of the screenplay? Is it the dated electronic score that somehow dates the film but not its cerebral or emotional impact? Truth is I don't know what makes 'Educating Rita' so memorable for me - in my head scenes and snippets of this film just pop up and play whenever they've a mind to! - and perhaps that's what makes this film exemplary as movie magic. It deserved and deserves more viewers - whether or not they'll like isn't important: as Rita/Susan says, she now has "choices" - and in my head when its scenes play I can't help giving it unending applause.

Alcoholic professor tutors a working class woman who aspires to become educated. It's based on a play and it shows. Most of the film is devoted to conversations between Caine as the self-pitying professor and Walters as the uncultured but enthusiastic student. While some of the dialog is interesting, much of it is mundane and repetitive and the film quickly runs out of steam. Caine is fine, but the film belongs to Walters. Repeating her stage role, Walters is delightfully vivacious in her film debut. The only problem is that her accent is so thick that those who are not British may have to strain to understand what she is saying.

I was introduced to this movie when I was 5 and though I had no idea about the issues being dealt with I was mesmerized. As an American child I was fascinated by the "ultra-odd" culture and cars and streets and language and I loved every second of it. I think I've judged every film since by this one which would explain why I've never really enjoyed the "Hollywood happy ending". I think my favorite line is when Rita says, "It's fun, tragedy, isn't it?". AMEN. I rediscovered it in college and understood that Rita's journey for education came full circle, without convenient resolution, and I can completely relate. Great acting, great directing, truly a human drama ... I'd long for a sequel if sequel's weren't so damn awful. Brava Julie!

Having cast Michael Caine in "Alfie" some years earlier, director Lewis Gilbert reunited with him for the equally splendid "Educating Rita". Caine plays drunken, burned-out literature teacher Frank Bryant. Frank seems just about at the end of his rope when he meets hairdresser Rita (Julie Walters), who wants to continue her education. In the process, they both learn some things from each other.

This may sound like a cliché, but it's not here. They never let the movie turn into a sugary mess; they keep it strong from beginning to end. Michael Caine reaffirmed himself as possibly the Union Jack's most dependable actor of the post-war period, and Julie Walters jump-started a formidable career that would include "Billy Elliot" and the "Harry Potter" movies. Lewis Gilbert went on to direct "Shirley Valentine", another movie that everyone should see.

Dr. Bryant (Michael Caine) is a bored drunk literature college professor. Rita White (Julie Walters) is an uneducated hairdresser. She tries to take him as her tutor for the Open University but he rejects her. She refuses to accept and fixes his door instead. Frank's wife left him and his girlfriend Julia is cheating on him with Brian. Rita's simple husband Denny wants to have kids but she's secretly taking the pill.

Julie Walters is a revelation and Michael Caine is actually doing good work rather than just cashing in another paycheque. The situations are a little broad. The characters are a little too archetypal. However the performances are terrific and they elevate the material.

British comedy-cum-character study with 'something meaningful to say'. Screenwriter Willy Russell adapted his stage play about a flighty hairdresser (Julie Walters) getting more than just an education from boozy, burnt-out professor Michael Caine--she learns to appreciate and nurture her own intellect. The pace is easy-going, with our heroine getting brighter with every misty montage, yet the process of teaching--or actually learning something through dedicated study--is not dramatized...it isn't even attempted. Russell brings the focus back to the growing mutual admiration between professor and student, and the classroom is ultimately just a backdrop, a ploy to bring these colorful characters closer. Performances are professional and solid, but the cloying scheme of this picture is sentiment-driven. ** from ****