Educating Rita (1983)

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 it is about those written works that’s 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