SummaryBored with her life as a hairdresser, and under pressure from her husband to start a family, Rita enrolls in literature tutorials at a British university determined to better herself. (Paramount Pictures)
Directed By:Lewis Gilbert
Written By:Willy Russell
Educating Rita
54
7.0
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Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
60% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
20% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
20% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
90
Aided greatly by an expert film adaptation by its playwright, Willy Russell, Gilbert has come up with an irresistible story about a lively, lower-class British woman hungering for an education and the rather, staid, degenerating English professor who reluctantly provides her with one.
80
Lewis Gilbert, and two career best performances from his leading actors, give this film such energy it leaves the pleasant aroma of life and possibility.
75
This is a poignant if predictable take on the English class system, buoyed by an effervescent performance from Walters.
63
The achievement of Educating Rita is a function of the distinguished performances, the agreeably archetypal situation and the scissor-sharp lines. [23 Sep 1983]
60
The film doesn't transcend its genre, but it's an honorable achievement within it.
30
The essentially two-character play has been opened up to the point that it includes a variety of settings and subordinate figures, but it never approaches anything lifelike.
25
If you were ever curious how a bad director can destroy the work of two talented actors and a slight, but funny, script, you need look no further than Educating Rita. [28 Oct 1983]
User score
Generally Favorable
64% Positive
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
36% Mixed
4 Ratings
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0% Negative
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Sep 18, 2014
7
It is not a British version of MY FAIR LADY (1964, 6/10), EDUCATING RITA goes a bit higher than that, it is about how literature can improve one’s listless life and transfigure one’s entire bearing from within.
Rita, aka Susan White (Walters) is a 26-year-old hairdresser, married to an ordinary electrician for 6 years, she never goes to college, but finds herself as a thirsty bookworm, thus under the aim of completing her education and take the exam, she eagerly takes an open university tutorial from a college literature professor Dr. Frank Bryant (Caine), a middle-age divorcé and drunkard. So it is a story of Rita’s transformation from a low-class commoner to a mature woman who realises her self-worth and does embrace to the life she is really pining for. At the same time, it is a brilliant two-hander, Frank’s life orbit also veers dramatically since the two form a thoroughly cordial friendship. (I was so relieved it didn’t end up like a Hollywood mawkish rom-com with artificial happy ending.)
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Production Company:
- Acorn Pictures
Release Date:Sep 21, 1983
Duration:1 h 50 m
Rating:PG
Tagline:A comedy about a teacher and a very memorable student [Video Australia]
Awards
Golden Globes, USA
• 2 Wins & 4 Nominations
Academy Awards, USA
• 3 Nominations
BAFTA Awards
• 3 Wins & 6 Nominations
