Educating Rita

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.

"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.

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!

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?

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.