Shirley Valentine

[ShirleyWasMiserable]

Interested in how others see Shirley Valentine after a conversation with someone (a man, in case it makes a difference - I suspect it might).

His take - Shirley is a bored menopausal housewife, goes away, has a fling, goes back to Joe.

My take - Shirley has had all of her spark squashed out of her. Her husband isn’t nice to her, borderline abusive (I feel MN would encourage her to leave!). She’s lost herself as so many women do. She escaped her horrible marriage and found herself again.

This has been one of my favourite films since my twenties. My opinion of it has matured and I spot more things that I resonate with, but even when my relationship was happy I felt that her marriage was awful and rooted for her to leave Joe. In my head at the end of the film Joe returns home and Shirley stays in Greece.

Hearing a completely different take on the whole film has surprised me, it didn’t cross my mind that anyone could see it differently, as it feels very obvious that this is a sort of anthem for downtrodden middle aged women (“I'm no longer Shirley Bradshaw, middle aged housewife, beginning to sag a bit. I'm Shirley the brave. Shirley the marvellous! Shirley Valentine!”)

so I wondered what others thought!

She was only 42.

So what’s your take on it?
She was only 42, but she was downtrodden and treated badly.

I always saw it in the way you did OP.

Definitely didn't go back to Joe!
She's taken for granted and beaten down.
But realises she is not old and owes it to herself to actually live...see the world and "find herself"
Mallandra moves in with her dad I think.
I love that film

It's surprisingly emotional I think.
I always cry at the end when Joe turns up.

I always feel emotional when she’s sitting there at sunset looking so confident.
Then I close my eyes and imagine Joe heading home reflecting on what he’s lost.

I do feel a bit sad for Joe at the end.
But not much!

This stuck out to me massively too watching it recently, when she looks at herself in the mirror in her housecoat - "Christ Shirley, you're only 42"

42 in the 80s so very different to 42 now.

My take is like yours @ShirleyWasMiserable .

The other person didn't watch the film very carefully if that's their take, as it shows us from so many angles how Shirley has become lost over the years. Also, they need to learn a bit more about the menopause as it's pretty unusual, not unheard of, but unusual to be menopausal at her age.

It’s also one of my favourite films. So much so it was what made me visit Mykonos to see where it was filmed.

I think her and Joe get back together after he’s had his epiphany about how much of a twat he’s been and how crap he’s treated her and changes.

Can’t believe she’s only 42 😄 but I guess it was the late 80’s and perms weren’t exactly flattering.

When it first came out Shirley was my parent’s generation, and looked fairly normal for 42. I mean, a bit dowdy, but not really very different to other 42 year old women.

I think Joe was abusive.
The nasty way he acted when she gave him the wrong tea.
Why should she put up with that?

I love that the film leaves the ending to you. Joe has been taking Shirley for granted for years, becoming selfish rather than abusive IMP. I interpret Joe turning up in Greece and, especially, the way he approaches Shirley, quietly, uncertainly, undemandingly, as him remembering how he loved her as a person. There's hope there. Willingness, perhaps, to change himself. But does Shirley want him back? Is he too late?

I think that your man is a Joe in his interpretation. Everything must be centred on the man. Shirley is merely his satellite, she cannot exist without him. Whereas we women see her as an individual in her own right. She was a man's satellite, but she has discovered her own sense of self independent of any man.

Shirley Valentine is one of my favourite films and I watch it every now and again.

The man you had the conversation with is really just putting forward Joe's perspective isn't he ? That there was nothing wrong with the traditional type marriage Shirley was in so it must be her hormones playing up if she wasn't happy.

I didn't think there was anything too mysterious about the film. So many relationships morph into boring routine and often one partner realises they don't want to drift into old age without widening their horizons.

I've always assumed that the end of the film shows the beginning of Joe changing his perspective on life and that they do get back together in a different form of the marriage. One that is more fulfilling for them both as individuals.

I think her husband and daughter took her for granted (as often happens) and she felt at peace with her life abroad at the end. I think she felt some sympathy for Joe (who was still clinging onto his view of their old life) but she wouldn’t go back with him as she’d moved on.

Oh absolutely, she was totally the norm for a 42 year old woman in that time and place.

I saw it performed a few weeks back to celebrate the anniversary of the Everyman theatre, were it began life.

It was amazing! The whole thing is a monologue.

Having seen the film as a teen, and saw her as a typical women of my mums generation, and I believe I would never end up like that...to watch through fresh eyes of a 50 something and realise that life, routine and expectations grind you down.

Joe was of his time. My Dad's generation expected their tea on the table. He simply replicated the behaviour that had been handed down through the generations. Less deliberately abusive, more thoughtless.

One of my favourite films. I also saw the original stage production at the Liverpool Everyman - Shirley cooked the chips and egg live on stage !
I think like many people both Shirley and Joe lost themselves in the day to day drudgery.

They remind me of my own parents, who would have been about the same age when the play was written.
I dont think Joe was abusive as such but more confused that Shirley wanted more out of life. She was after ' more' whereas he couldn't see what was wrong with what they had. He had no imagination and lost sight of the Shirley he had married.
My father actually was a nasty piece of work though and hated it when my mum hit 40, learnt to drive and actively tried to stop her going to college. My mum never got as far as Greece but the local college changed her life. My father just couldn't see what the problem was in the first place. No imagination.
Very similar themes in Educating Rita, Rita wanting more from life than to be tied down with babies.
I don't think Shirley would have gone back to Joe, at least not straight away and not convinced she would have stayed in Greece.

It's a long time since I saw it but was she abused or just a drudge her husband took for granted?

It was set in the 80s when many women still saw their life set out as wife and mother. She was unfulfilled, lonely and bored.

She used to talk to the wall because she had nothing else in her life. She hadn't lived and it was wonderful seeing her blossom as she had her adventure.

I reckon she got back with her husband and was more assertive and adventurous.

I like the open ending too. At the beginning her husband is selfish and no one in her life sees her a person in her own right, she’s just a drudge. At the end she can make the choice as to whether to stay with him or not, and it’s on her terms.

She was a woman with the irritating habit of being unable to say "Egg and Chips".

Who FFS says "Chips and Egg"??????

That is also one of my main memories of the film!

May she rip , I'm watching it now. She's the same age as me . The vegan dog 😆 🤣.

She was a wife and mother being taken for granted by her family. I think the actress was about 49. She looked like a pretty middle-aged mum. Everybody's mum seemed to have a perm.

I don't think she was menopausal (MN reduces all women to being barely more than the state of their hormones) - more she was looking middle age in the face and not liking what her life was like.