Product: Educating Rita (UK) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - United Kingdom ]
Rating: 5.0
"There have to be better songs to sing"
Rita, a British working-class hairdresser in her mid twenties, pauses at a crossroads in her life to take university courses. Rita is driven by the desire to see what more there may be to life before settling into the routine of bearing and raising children--much to the consternation of her lout of a husband! When I think of this film, the first scene that comes to my mind is the one where Rita's mother seems depressed while her friends and family sing a forgettable popular song while sitting at the local pub. "There have to be better songs to sing," she muses through tears. Rita takes her mother's sad reflections to heart and continues with her quest for something more beautiful and meaningful. She is assisted in her quest by a cynical and hard-drinking tutor played by Michael Cain. Though reluctant at first to believe that any good can come of helping to educate Rita, in time Cain's character comes to respect her desire for academic enlightenment and finds a bit more meaning to his own drab life as well!