As movie midlife crises go, Shirley Valentine’s is a doozy. A bored Northern England housewife, wondering what her life is about and how to navigate around her clueless husband, Shirley would be at her wits’ end–except that she knows how to dream big. As played by the incomparable Pauline Collins (who created the role on Broadway, and won a Tony for it), Shirley embraces not only her own constricted life, but the dreams of the big, beautiful world beyond it. Directed by Lewis Gilbert (Educating Rita), Shirley Valentine is an anthem to the freedom of the soul–with a generous dose of salt of the earth. As she assesses her life, Shirley’s humor never fails her: “I think sex is like supermarkets, you know, overrated. Just a lot of pushing and shoving and you still come out with very little at the end.” Yet Collins’ Shirley gets as much out of defending her right to her dream (a sunny holiday in Greece) as she does realizing it, and that makes for much of the glow of the [Read More...]
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One of the best films ever made that explores the human heart, “Shirley Valentine” begins with a bored British housewife who aches for “the girl who used to be me.” Shirley Valentine was the rebel, the smart-mouth, the girl who would dare to do what other girls only dreamed of having the nerve to try. Now she’s Shirley Bradshaw, a 42-year-old housewife with 2 grown kids and a husband she feels doesn’t love her anymore. This movie is about how a fortnight’s holiday alone (more or less - she arrives with a friend who promptly ditches her) in Greece enables her to find Shirley Valentine again. Funny, witty, heartwarming, inspiring, sentimental without being syrupy, “Shirley Valentine” is for all of us who’ve ever wondered if we made the right choices in life — and if it’s too late to take some of them back. Pauline Collins deserved the Oscar she was nominated for (too bad she didn’t get it), with one of the best performances by an actor ever put onto film. The perfect movie to watch WHENEVER you are “down in the dumps,” this film will cheer you up and give you hope, each and every time.
I saw this movie many years ago, when it first hit the art house theatres. I bought it on video as soon as it was available!
This movie touched me in a way that no other movie has before. Shirley’s desire to rediscover life during a marriage that’s lifeless, along with two grown kids that don’t seem to care much for her anymore, really was poignant. Her desire to find that young, rebellious girl that she once was, willing to take chances and enjoy life, see the world — it’s an amazing film.
You’ll enjoy her little sidebars to the cameras and her conversations with inanimate objects. Pauline Collins is adorable and a delight in this film. It’s a great film for women and men alike, for those who have forgotten who they are but want to get back in touch with their inner child, realize that just because your 40 doesn’t mean you’re dead; you’ve got a lot more living to do, as Shirley states in the movie.
Buy it for yourself and for others. It’s funny and touching at the same time. You’ll cheer for Shirley as she breaks out of the bored housewife mode and into the sexy go-getter who’s ready to conquer the world.
The only complaint I have (and it’small) is that the first time you watch it, you may have a hard time understanding Shirley. Her British accent is rather hard, but once you’ve watched it a number of times (and I’m sure you will want to) you get used to the accent.
Shirley Valentine is a housewife. That’s it. Just a housewife. She cooks, she cleans, she shops, mostly she talks to herself, and in this poignant film, she talks to us as well, the viewer. It’s hard to get used to at first. A film with a woman all alone in a dreary apartment talking to herself, but you soon get past that one little oddity, and Shirley Valentine becomes real. Her life is so similar to millions of other ‘just housewives’ that if she didn’t finally decide to go on a trip to Greece with a friend, there would have been no movie. Shirley loses her housewife persona in Greece, and after much inner turmoil and emotional self-battering, comes of age again within herself. It’s a very beautiful and moving story, one most middle aged women can relate to quite well. I rooted Shirley on through out the movie. More than anything I wanted her to find herself, because the film is so good you believe, if only for a short time, that it is you going through this with Shirley. Shirley is no hero, she is no female icon and does not become anyone’s object of worship, she just becomes herself, which turns out to be the best thing that could have happened to this movie.