SHIRLEY VALENTINE (1989)- Week 1

No one thought she had the courage. The nerve. Or the lingerie.

Directed by Lewis Gilbert;
Based on play by Willy Russell;
Screenplay by Willy Russell.

The leading role is performed by actress Pauline Colins who also played Shirley Valentine's part on the play.

This is an excerpt of the review posted at IMDb site titled "We always have steak on a Thursday", 16 February 2009 by author James Hitchcock from Tunbridge Wells, England
Go to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098319/usercomments?start=10 and read all the review.

...Shirley's main concern is that life is passing her by. We learn from flashbacks that the young Shirley was a wild, rebellious, free-spirited girl and in the early days of her marriage was still fun-loving and unconventional, devotedly in love with her husband. The older Shirley is bored and frustrated, trapped in a marriage which seems to have died. She has fallen out of love with Joe, who has become cold, stingy and bad-tempered. Whereas Shirley hates routine and predictability, Joe thrives on them; in one memorable scene he loses his temper because she has served him egg and chips rather than steak for his tea. ("We always have steak on a Thursday. We have chips and egg on a Tuesday").

Shirley sees a chance of escape from her routine when her friend Jane wins a holiday for two to Greece in a competition and asks Shirley to come with her. Shirley has never been abroad before (Joe being too mean to pay for foreign holidays), and, after some hesitation, accepts and sets off for Greece without telling her husband. While on holiday she meets, falls for, and has a brief affair with, Costas, a Greek bar owner. At first, he appears to be everything Joe is not- handsome, charming, generous and attentive- but Shirley soon discovers that he is a practised seducer, which is why their affair is only a brief one...