SHIRLEY VALENTINE
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1989 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: A promising and well-written start leads to a rather bland romantic comedy in an exotic setting. While Shirley is unhappy, she is clever and endearing and funny. Unfortunately, her wish to visit Greece comes true and the story founders. Rating: +1.
SHIRLEY VALENTINE is a film about a woman who started out to be remarkable, lost her way, and became very ordinary, only to find herself and become remarkable again. The film itself starts remarkable, becomes ordinary, but fails to become remarkable again. The play upon which the film was based had just one woman on stage talking about her experiences but the film decides to be more cinematic and actually dramatizes the incidents.
At 42, Shirley is a mousy little housewife taken for granted by her working-class husband and her two grown-up but less than totally mature children. We see her in her daily life of drudgery in which any deviance from her normal routine is seen by her family as rebellion. She reminisces about her slightly wild youth and wonders how that adventuresome schoolgirl got buried in the routine of drudgery. Deep inside she longs to go to Greece and sit by the sea sipping wine. These early parts of the film, set in England, have a warm humor and good writing. Finally Shirley gets her chance to go to Greece and the writing goes flat. We have a tepid and predictable romantic comedy of her Greek fling. There are still a few nice humorous scenes, but not enough to compensate for the staleness of the material.
Pauline Collins is likable in the title role, repeating the part she created on the London stage. (Ellen Burstyn played the same role in New York, perhaps with not so thick an accent.) The play was by Willy Russell, who wrote the film EDUCATING RITA. That film's director, Lewis Gilbert, also directs this film. Somehow EDUCATING RITA's paean to culture seemed like something that had to be said. In spite of some clever writing, in SHIRLEY VALENTINE Russell seems to be saying nothing less banal than "You cannot please everyone so you have to please yourself." For those who need that homily reinforced this film may seem profound. My rating is a disappointing +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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