Sue & Bob Too Rita Movie Review

There is probably no subject that both men and woman lie about as much as sex, but moments into Rita, Sue & Bob Too it seems that the filmmakers are out to set some sort of a record for sexual dishonesty. Just for starters, we are asked to accept that the line “Can either of you put a rubber johnny on?” would trigger unbridled lust in two 16-year-old babysitters when their 40-year-old employer drives them home at his wife's suggestion. Since he has a track record with babysitters, it's hard to believe that any 27-year-old woman would set herself up like that, as well as the two girls, but the incredulity continues. Although Rita and Sue are both virgins, they experience no pain whatever from their first sexual experience. Sex with each takes one minute flat, he's ready to roll without a break, and both girls share a simultaneous climax with Bob. If viewers have gotten this far, then they may have no problem accepting the fact that Bob's attractive wife is frigid due to her hatred of French kisses and sterilization, not because she's married to a faithless jerk who lies to her, then blames her for his problems. The script was written by a talented teenager named Andrea Dunbar (1961– ). She writes of Northern England in an observant, uninterpretive style: “If it's put there on a plate, he's going to take it. He wouldn't be much of a man if he didn't” is the sort of sexual propaganda that her female characters can and do swallow. Other instructive lyrics: “We're having a gang bang. It's the thing to do. We'd like to give you one.” The women in the film are punished not only for having sex, but also for being sexual fantasies. Rita, Sue & Bob Too hardens prejudices rather than challenges them: a cute boy from Pakistan, whom Sue sees for a while, is shown as violent, manipulative, and mercenary. He is written out of the plot when a white neighbor telephones the police the minute he enters his neighborhood. Although teens Rita and Sue are obviously played by women in their 20s, the cast of unknowns is talented, the Bradford scenery is attractive, and there is a gritty quality to director Alan Clarke's (1935–90) vision of the drabness of these characters’ lives. woof!

1987 (R) 94m/C GB Michelle Holmes, George Costigan, Siobhan Finneran, Lesley Sharp, Willie Ross, Patti Nicholls, Kulvinder Ghir; D: Alan Clarke; W: Andrea Dunbar; C: Ivan Strasburg; M: Michael Kamen. VHS, LV