Alcoholic professor tutors a working class woman who aspires to become educated. It's based on a play and it shows. Most of the film is devoted to conversations between Caine as the self-pitying professor and Walters as the uncultured but enthusiastic student. While some of the dialog is interesting, much of it is mundane and repetitive and the film quickly runs out of steam. Caine is fine, but the film belongs to Walters. Repeating her stage role, Walters is delightfully vivacious in her film debut. The only problem is that her accent is so thick that those who are not British may have to strain to understand what she is saying.
Review of Educating Rita
