Production Year: 1989 - Comedy - Director: Lewis Gilbert - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Pauline Collins, Tom Conti, Bernard Hill, Alison Steadman, Joanna Lumley, Julia McKenzie, Sylvia Syms more
An unpredictable, wisecracking, bored English housewife accepts an invitation from a friend to a vacation in Greece and rediscovers her zest for life and love.
woman who decides in her middle years that she wants more out of life. Leaving her spouse behind, she heads to Greece, where she grows close to a low-key local blok...
woman who decides in her middle years that she wants more out of life. Leaving her spouse behind, she heads to Greece, where she grows close to a low-key local blok...
Shirley Valentine DVD
Shirley Bradshaw has always been able to see the funny side of any situation. She was a ... more
high-school rebel and now she's a housewife and mother who one day looks back at her life and realises that she has lost touch with her dreams. When her best friend...
Shirley Valentine
In the role that won her Broadway's acclaimed Tony Award, Pauline Collins is the ... more
hilariously endearing Shirley Valentine, a wisecracking, completely unpredictable English housewife who proves it's never too late to recapture your dreams.Bored with her suburban life, Shirley takes a chance on adventure when a friend invites her on a vacation to Greece. Within no time she's back to her rebellious teenage roots, saying yes to a wild fling with a handsome rogue (Oscar nominee Tom Conti) and the life she's always wanted.From the creators of the hit film Educating Rita, this Delightful romantic comedy will keep audiences smiling long after its final scene.
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Production Year: 2004 - Comedy - Director: John Hay - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jimi Mistry, Kate Miles, Dougray Scott
Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
A review by Mattroberts on Shirley Valentine (DVD) August 16th, 2003
Author's product rating:
Did you enjoy it?
Loved it
Story
Outstanding
Characters / Performances
Good
Special Effects
Good
How does it compare to similar films?
Outstanding
Advantages:
-
Disadvantages:
-
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Willy Russell proved he had talent when he wrote Educating Rita. It was apparent he knew how people coped and dealt with things, and also how they felt about others and themselves, even. Willy Russel, in Shirley Valentine, writes about a woman who wants to be who she was. Not looks wise. Not hair wise. Not even boobs wise! No, she just wants to be able to be that woman again in her heart, and be Shirley Valentine once again. Shirley Valentine is one of those deep, light-hearted films for everyone. It’s a lovely tale, but it’s got a heck of a story or two, and it’s an absolute gem. It was performed on stage for a while, and it was a big hit there, as well (Willy Russel also wrote the stage play). Shirley Valentine will touch anyone who has a heart. It’s a woman who wants to be who she was. Someone who was she, before she was what she is now; someone who can live life to the full…
♦ ♦ The Plot ♦ ♦
Shirley has been married to Joe for many years. She got married. Moved into a new home. Had kids, and that was it. It seemed as if her life stopped and she didn’t have anything to do. After a while she begins to talk to the wall and that’s how we are introduced into the film. Even though she’s talking to the camera, she’s talking to the wall as well, if you get me! We, the audience, are the people watching her talking to the wall. And it seems, the wall is her only friend. Shirley recalls with us some of the things she did when she was younger, when she was unmarried and single with her maiden name Valentine. Shirley begins to miss that life of beings free and single. Not the fact she could have a boyfriend, not that sort of free, but a sort of freeness that could let her go anyway at anytime and not for anyone else, but herself.
She’s fed up with her marriage to Joe. He demands a meal on the table at 6pm sharp, and it has to be the same each day of the week. He's stuck to a schedule and doesn't have a spontaneous gene in his body. When Shirley gives him Chips and egg on a Thursday, he goes bonkers, because Chips and egg is supposed to be on a Tuesday and Steak on a Thursday! That’s the sort of life she leads. Stuck to a schedule with arguments, and having to do the same day in day out. When Jane, her best friend, suggest going on holiday to Greece for free, she declines, but after a while she changes her mind. Maybe she can become Shirley Valentine in Greece...
♦ ♦ Performances ♦ ♦
Shirley needed to be played in a special sort of way. She needed to be tough, but she also needed to be walked all over at times as well. Her character was very difficult to understand, let alone play! Pauline Collins isn’t the best of actresses, but she just clicked whilst playing Shirley, and I don’t believe there was a better person to play her. She managed to be serious when it was needed, and also managed to be comical. She was perfect to play her.
Shirley Valentine, even though it’s a very poignant film, is mostly a comedy, because there are a few laughs along the way. Pauline, in my opinion, is the funniest in the film, because she manages to be comical without trying! Pauline Collins also managed to make us pity her at times. Trying to make someone pity you as a character in a film is extremely difficult, but Pauline managed to do it very well. She managed also, to show us the difference between Shirley Valentine, and Shirley maiden-name-Valentine. She got an Oscar nomination for her role, and it's a crime she didn't get it.
Most of the other actors didn’t play big roles in the film. The others were just there to build Shirley’s life to a full. They do play their parts well, but it’s irrelevant in a way, because Shirley is so important in the film. The best actress in the film, by far, is Joanna Lumley. She’s funny, glamorous and as stunning as ever. She plays Shirley’s old school enemy and someone Shirley used to be pretty horrible to! Joanna Lumley is in about seven minutes of the film, and only has about 50 words said in the whole film. That’s what’s so brilliant about Shirley Valentine. A little character, which plays a small part in the film, can make the film so much better. And she did.
The storyline of Shirley Valentine is what makes the film, but the acting is an added bonus to enjoy. A good British cast who make the film that bit better in their own little way.
♦ ♦ My Thoughts ♦ ♦
Shirley Valentine, in my opinion, is very much alike Educating Rita. As they are written by the same writer, they should have some similarity, but I feel they are actually exactly the same. Rita wants to become a new person. She wants to learn, and leave who she was. Shirley wants to leave the person she’s become and go back to who she was. The two women have the same sort of dreams, vice versa.
Shirley Valentine is aimed at everyone. It hasn’t got a target audience it’s just got an audience who sit there enjoying the film. What makes it that bit more special as well, is the fact Shirley talks to us. Shirley talks to the camera, and I feel that makes it that bit more special. We get to hear Shirley’s thoughts, and it makes the film more personal, and more entertaining. Because Shirley is so down to earth, we feel so comfortable with her.
What I didn’t like about the film was the look backs on Shirley’s youth. I feel, we didn’t see enough of the Shirley Valentine she was, to see what she wanted to be again. Eve though there were flashbacks, I feel if she’d have told us what she thought, it would’ve been so much better This is the only bad thing about Shirley Valentine. It is such a good film, and at times it’s so sad to watch. A woman just wants to be who she was, but somehow can’t reach there, and isn’t allowed. As I’ve already said, whoever you are, whatever you feel, watch Shirley Valentine. It will change your views on life, and how you judge people; it certainly did mine.
Advantages: Too many to list Disadvantages: Changes in the words
...The Story
Shirley Bradshaw (Pauline Collins) is a middle aged English housewife who has lost the person who she once was as a girl; she was Shirley the Brave, Shirley Valentine. Through Shirley we get introduced to her children (Brian & Miranda), friends and husband, Joe. We are also taken back to her teenage rebellious years and how he used to pick on Marjory Majors. In a turn of events Shirley meets up with Marjory in her later years ... ...Shirley has two friends in her life Jane and the wall; she talks the wall quite regularly. At one point Joe even starts it as well! Shirley's friend Jane wins a competition for a fortnight's holiday in Greece for 2 and she wants Shirley to go with her. Shirley desperately wants to go but feels that she is too old until her neighbour Gillian comes over.
Jane abandons Shirley at the airport in Greece and on her own see discovers herself again and ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Heartwarming, Passes time, In depth. Disadvantages: A little rude.
Shirley Valentine has to be one of my all time favourite films. This film has several layers and whilst it's funny, a little rude and totally eccentric, it's also moving and heart warming. In fact, you grow to love Shirley Valentine so much so that you feel sorry for her in the end. It's true that all Shirley has ever wanted in her life is to be herself, but because of her demanding husband who values her cooking more than her company and her children ... ...to be herself, to be Shirley Valentine.
Shirley Valentine is in every sense a brave and loving woman with such a warm heart of gold. She cares not only for her family, but for everyone she comes into contact with. Her family life is in such distress that she's very brave to deal with the stress that she faces. When her journey takes her towards independence and sexual awakening she leaves behind her drab yellow and green kitchen in England for the ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: A realistic and engaging character Disadvantages: None at all unless the film is too short
Shirley Valentine is a truly heartwarming tale about a forty something housewife who has reached a point in her life where she has stagnated in a world of supermarket shopping and talking to the wall. She is captured perfectly by Pauline Collins who is comical as well as moving.
Her mundane life will surely strike a chord with many women and I would have to say that I feel the film would have more appeal for a female than a male. The film opens ... ...her selfish daughter.
Shirley is persuaded by her friend Jane (played by the brilliant Alison Steadman) to accompany her to Greece on a holiday won in a magazine competition. Although Shirley is initially hesitant about the reaction of Joe, there is a sense of a desperate need to reclaim her rapidly diminishing identity.
She recalls her disillusionment at school and is horrified to run into Marjorie Majors (played by super glam Joanna Lumley) However ...
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Story
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10.10.2004
TAKE ME AWAY Review ofShirley Valentine (DVD)by
TRAY64
Advantages: REAL TO LIFE Disadvantages: ABIT DULL AT TIMES
I FOUND THIS FILM TO BE OKAY.A BORED WOMAN DECIDES TO TAKE A TRIP TO GREECE,AND ENDS UP WITH MORE THAN SHE BARGAINED FOR.SHE GRABS THE ATTENTION OF A MAN,AND GOES FOR IT.SHE GETS SO SWEPT UP IN THE ROMANCE AND THE SURROUNDINGS.WHEN SHE GETS BACK HOME TO HER DULL LIFE,SHE DECIDES IT IS NOT FOR HER.I DID LIKE THIS FILM BECAUSE IT HAPPENS TO SO MANY WOMEN WHO GET CARRIED AWAY WITH HOLIDAY ROMANCES.I THINK IT PORTRAITS A GOOD LESSON FOR WOMEN WHO FEEL ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful
Advantages: Shirley Valentine Disadvantages: First Wives' Club
...When my mum got divorced from my dad, someone bought her this gift set, consisting of the British ShirleyValentine and the Hollywood First Wives' Club. At the time, bewildered and hurt, this was a perfect combination. Having recently come out of a long-term relationship, I was feeling in need of something to annoint my hurt pride, so dusted the set off and started watching.
First Wives Club begins with the suicide of Cynthia, an old college friend of Brenda, Elise and Annie. The three friends get together because of Cynthia's death, which was the result of depression after a failed marriage, and gradually, it becomes clear that each of them is also coming out of a ruined relationship - all have husbands who left them for younger women and all are feeling unconfident and deflated. Then they decide to stick together and fight back...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Plot: An unpredictable, wisecracking, bored English housewife accepts an invitation from a friend to a vacation in Greece and rediscovers her zest for life and love.
DVD Description
An unpredictable, wisecracking, bored English housewife accepts an invitation from a friend to a vacation in Greece and rediscovers her zest for life and love.
Release details
DVD Region: DVD
Studio(s): PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT; TECHNICOLOR DIST. SERVICES
Release date: 08/11/2004
No of Discs: 1
Catalogue No: PHE 8445
Barcode: 5014437844538
Languages
Main Language: English
Hearing Impaired Language: English
Technical information
Aspect Ratio: Full Frame, 16:9
Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo
Dubbing Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo English
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Listed on Ciao since : 16/08/2003
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