EDUCATING RITA Michael Caine Retrospective

Rita (Julie Walters) is a married, working-class hairdresser with a sharp wit. She is 26 and doesn’t want a baby. Dr. Frank Bryant (Michael Caine) is a disillusioned university professor of literature. His marriage has failed, his girlfriend is having an affair with his best friend and he can’t get through the day without downing a bottle or two of whiskey. He refers to himself as an appalling teacher of appalling students.

What Frank needs is a challenge, and then along comes Rita. Caine and Walters deliver a pair of wonderful performances in this bittersweet tale of a boozy, burnt-out professor’s tutoring of (and subsequent tutoring by) a free-spirited cockney hairdresser determined to improve her lot in life.