Product Details

• Actors: Pauline Collins, Tom Conti, Julia McKenzie, Alison Steadman, Joanna Lumley
• Directors: Lewis Gilbert
• Writers: Willy Russell
• Producers: Lewis Gilbert, John Dark
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: April 16, 1996
• Run Time: 108 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (189 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301627024
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,651 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #18 in	Video > Comedy > Romantic Comedies > Contemporary
  #22 in	Video > Art House & International > United Kingdom > Comedy
  #25 in	Video > Comedy > British

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

British actress Pauline Collins repeats her stage success as the character Shirley Valentine, a married 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 bloke (Tom Conti). Collins and director Lewis Gilbert (Educating Rita) choose to let the character, as she did in the play, speak directly to the audience at times, and the gamble works in terms of creating a gentle, intimate atmosphere. Conti is a bonus, a warm presence and funny to boot. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST for any video/dvd library!, December 19, 2001

By	jadedromantic "jadedromantic" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

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.

48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Shirley Valentine is lovely!, December 7, 1999

By	"nathanwsf" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

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.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There is a little of this lady in all women., April 25, 2002

By	Betti Trapp (Riyadh Saudi Arabia) - See all my reviews

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.