Review of Educating Rita (1983) by Kok Hoong F — 02 Sep 2012

Viewed on 21/6/04 (Mon).

Educating Rita's script and two leads were making rounds at the Oscars, Golden Globes and BAFTA back in 1984. It is not my intention to watch Brassed Off and Educating Rita back-to-back. Later I realised that both belong to the feel-good genre. Both aim to be uplifting, inspiring and witty. While Brassed Off failed miserably, Education Rita made it.

Before Billy Elliot and Calendar Girls, Julie Walters was already very good in her film debut. She plays a working-class housewife who 'want to find meself' in an open university, learning literary criticism under Michael Caine's Dr. Frank. One of her funny lines, "Howards End? It sounds filthy." There is also another scene when Rita says she wants to give something back to her teacher for giving so much, proceeds to take off her coat, says "This is going to take ten years off you." and then she walks over to ... cut his hair. Rita was a hairdresser earlier in the film. BTW, their relationship is solely platonic. They can easily fall in love and then into bed, both being in broken marriages. But no, they will go that low and be mediocre.

There are some subtle opinions about what an education really means and what does it mean to find oneself in one. While watching, I am always afraid that the movie will wander into schmaltz-ville but it never. If Mark Herman is to direct this ... (*long sigh*).

Rating: B+.