As a lower-class British housewife hungering for an education, Julie Walters launched herself into the acting limelight, winning the Best Actress BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe in this surprisingly winning film version of Willy Russell's stage play about a 26-year-old peroxide-blonde hairdresser who gets a drunken Oxford don for a tutor when she comes to The Open University to better herself. Michael Caine as the don also won a BAFTA award, although the film almost loses its way in his character's disillusionment, not only with life, but with the 'new woman' he seems to have created. In the end, the story reasserts itself thanks to a climax that's just right without being overtly happy and to extremely attractive performances by the two stars in virtually the only roles of any stature in the whole film.