Doomtomylo
a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
Calum Hutton
It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
Cody
One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
Dave
I don't know why this is thought highly of by critics - it's one of the worst films I've ever seen. It's slow, dull, unfunny and none of the characters are likable. There's no indication as to what the protagonist wants to do with her literature qualification. Does she want to find a good job? If so, as what? Does she want educated friends? We never find out.Why does the protagonist call herself Rita, when her real name is Susan? If she wants to become classy, cultured etc. - then why swap one common, ordinary name for another?Michael Caine's character is a tired, cardboard cutout alcoholic. He's not the inspiring, enthusiastic, charismatic character that he's meant to be. He's a great actor, but he's wasted in this role.
LisaMihalik_CPUT Mihalik
I thoroughly enjoyed Educating Rita. In the opening scenes pre-Rita it seems rather dull and boring whilst we follow the drunk professor Frank, but Rita's arrival introduces comedy and a happier mood. She makes you want to keep watching to see how her life develops and her character evolves as she is educated. It highlights the class system and the stereotypical roles of the sexes. Rita, as an uneducated "common" woman is looked down on by her peers at university and those in her personal life who expect her to have children and stay home to raise a family and play the doting wife to her simpleminded husband. Frank, as an educated man gets away with having a drinking problem because he is considered to be of a higher class and more intelligent.The movie teaches us that education in the academic sense is not necessarily something that will improve your life- gaining life experience and finding yourself is how you become a better and wiser person who is confident and able to stand on your own two feet. Even though Frank is educated he is still not happy and remains a drunk, only finding happiness in his time tutoring Rita before she becomes engrossed in student life and has less time for him. He becomes nasty and realizes she has outgrown him. She becomes less simple but is still unhappy and sets out to try and fix Frank. Thus only when she realizes that she is equal to those around her and not inferior does she realize that she can be happy and stop trying to fit in and care what others think about her. Education is something huge for those who do not have it and very often taken for granted by those who are given it. Rita breaks the mold and in the end it is she herself who educated=s herself and not the university alone.
may antrobus
At first,ye,ye Julie Walters is a working class woman,awkward husband who doesn't want her to go to tutorials with Tutor Michael Caine.Then she becomes too knowledgeable nd know it all,distancing her from the prof.Yep sums up the film.Yet I watched it in silence,and it hurt.Her flatmate Trish saying'when there is no poetry and music it's just me,and that's not enough'.It was a bit close for comfort,yes it's a funny film,but the quandary Rita ends up in is too true.But as she says'at least I have the choice'.Lifes what you make it I suppose. I think if there is any film too watch that you can genuinely learn from,this is the one. Eleanor
graham_525
This film definitely isn't an example of great directing, cinematography or editing. The music is kind of cheap sounding and the overall feel isn't far off television. What makes this film great are the script, Julie Walters and Michael Caine. It's proof that if you get the right actors and the right words for them to speak all you have to do and stand back and let them get on with it.What also makes this film a great film is that it portrays very convincingly a character transformation. For me there is something particularly fascinating about showing a character in a film going through enormous personal change. However in Educating Rita the transformation has a bitter sting and it's only at the end that we find out exactly what the transformation of Rita the hairdresser to Susan the educated confident young woman really means. Rita had told her tutor played by Michael Caine that she wants to "sing a better tune" and that's why she wants to be educated. However at the end she is forced to question the value of all that she has learned when Michael Caine tells her that she hasn't learned a better tune, only a different one and on her lips it sounds "shrill and tuneless".I think the real message of this film is that ultimately education isn't just about books and knowledge it's about self discovery. At the end of the film, Susan, through education has become an independent woman with real choices in her life. However her real achievement is that she has found out who she is and is comfortable with that. She isn't embarrassed by her past and she isn't mesmerised and infatuated by the middle class world of academia. A great ending to a fantastic film.
