Educating Rita

EDUCATING RITA is based upon Willy Russell’s play of the same title. Rita is a young working-class woman with a burning desire for education. Enrolling on an Open University literature course, she is taken under the reluctant wing of a semi-alcoholic english professor, Frank. Both Julie Walters and Michael Caine are great, and their banter, their debates, and even their screaming matches are delights. Lewis Gilbert has taken a two-person play from stage to screen and cracked it open, but the core of the play – all that great dialogue – is still there. (Don Willmott)