Educating Rita

Hurricane Rita, now upgraded to a Category 4 storm is swirling westward toward Texas and the already battered Gulf Coast. The tropical storm battering the US gulf coast reminds me of the the unstoppable bubbling Rita in the movie Educating Rita. I first saw the movie while at college and my perspective was naturally from a student's angle. Fast forward and I now see it from the professor's position.

Watching Rita (julie Walters) put Frank Bryant's(Michael Caine) emotionally crippled professor consistently on the spot is wonderful and insightful fun. This is probably because most of us, as adults, can whole-heartedly relate to him. He is lost, adrift in his own inadequacies and bathing in the boiling funk of his own cynicism. He is old, tired and defeated. Life has almost crushed him. Watching Walters' Rita resurrect him becomes the most wondrous and life-affirming story the screen may have ever given us.

Those of us who are older, who have become a little bit crusty and cynical, need a shot in the arm like this every once in a while to remind us of the overwhelming beauty of life...

When the storm is over there will be sunshine.