Shirley Valentine

Shirley is a housewife in Liverpool. Her husband comes home at the same hour every evening and each day has its set meal. The children have grown and gone. Shirley spends much of the day talking to the kitchen wall; across the film she also talks to the camera. A friend makes her an offer: she has won a holiday in Greece for two and they will go together. Shirley cannot bring herself to tell her husband. Then she goes. She stays a while on the island and does not go to the airport on the date of her return ticket. Lewis Gilbert directs. Pauline Collins plays Shirley; Tom Conti, Julia McKenzie and Alison Steadman are in the cast. The source is Willy Russell's one woman play. Pauline Collins played the same part on stage; the play ran in London and on Broadway and she won awards for it. Collins was nominated for an Oscar for the film. Its form is direct address; the character looks at the camera and speaks, which comes from the one performer structure of the play. The matter it treats is a woman taking back her own name; the film builds it as a decision rather than an escape. The Greek sections were shot in real locations. The narrative does not show the husband as one dimensional but does not defend him either. Its limit is structure; the second half does not carry the energy of the first and the ending is too tidy. Who it is for: viewers who like British comedy drama and films drawn from the stage. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, the shape familiar, and the resolution easy.