Rating: 
Summary: Boring
Review: I finally caught up with this film, and, like so many high profile classics, I found it to be tedious. The script lumbered along and I found no enthusiasm for any of the characters. I must admit that the title character is complex and for that consideration, as well as the look of the period, I gave it 2 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Lesser Known, But Still One of the Greats
Review: I had no idea this movie existed until two months ago. Relatives who had seen it in the theatre wondered why - it was too good to be obscure, they said. I now share their outrage.One of the great staples of fiction and cinema is the revered instructor who changes his/her students - the type of individual the young will follow to the ends of the earth. But what if a teacher has the charisma but none of the common sense, is genuinely menacing without intending to be? Miss Brodie's "prime" is one of death. Praises to Maggie Smith and Pamela Smith as her tainted student/disciple.
Rating:
Summary: Maggie Smith is bloody brilliant
Review: I had read the book, which I thought was fairly cute. My dad wanted me to see the movie, so I rented this film and gave it a shot. It is now one of my favorite movies. Miss Jean Brodie is very colorful personality, with sass up the wazoo. Maggie Smith gives the *excellent* performance that she won the oscar for, and rightfully so. I was also very impressed with Pamela Franklin, the actress who plays Sandy. She truly took the character from the book and made her into a more admirable personality. This film will make you laugh until you wheeze. Very "unique" and "quirky". Especially for those who despise mainstream, big, dramatic films in the theatres today.
Rating:
Summary: Maggie Smith's cult of personality
Review: I know how thoroughly ridiculous it is for me to feel like I'm the first person who's ever discovered Maggie Smith, but when you see a miracle you just want to think it's yours. And that's what Smith is in this film--a white hot, shimmering miracle. It is entirely believable that Jean Brodie attracts followers as fiercely devoted to her as Il Duce's are to him. Watching this film for the first time the other night, I wanted to follow Jean Brodie too. Therein lies the classic power of this film: Jean Brodie, thirty-five years later, is still "not good for people." Smith's performance sizzled in every scene. She alternated from being pinched and controlled to fluid and dark as Jean's facade evaporated to expose the layers underneath. It was virtuosic. The full range of human emotion was all over this performance. Smith hit every emotional pitch perfectly, managing at all times to portray the kind of teacher for whom the pre-adolescent crush was invented. Smith totally owned this film. It was stunning, and it was seductive. The other performances were good, too. All of them. So good that I'm not entirely convinced the script deserved them. The script has its moments, and it's riddled with classically funny one-liners ("She means to intimidate me by the use of quarter hours."). But even for a different era, some of the language just seems too gosh darn decorative. Sometimes the dialogue's sweeping extravagance fits the character beautifully ("Give me a girl at an impressionable age . . .") but at other times it just doesn't seem to fit at all. Style aside, the ending is predictable. Poor Jean! Not only does she get spanked badly for being the charismatic force of nature that she is, we are taught that it is an entirely good and righteous thing that she should suffer. Smith convinces us to feel sorry for Jean, but that's the most she can do. We can't have any moral ambiguity, because Jean is dictator. Dictators are always seductive, they are always immoral, and they are never good for people. I don't like the lack of moral ambiguity at the end, but there would be no way to change it without killing the theme, which is that dictators must be taken down. Despite the heavy-handedness, this was a daring film. That comes across clearly. At least one of the scenes might even raise a few eyebrows today. I'm very glad I watched this, and although I almost never watch movies twice, I'll probably watch this one again. And I will certainly never look at Maggie Smith the same way again. Before, when she graced the big screen with one of her crushingly hilarious small parts, I'd just join the rest of the audience in whispering its collective "yay!" It's going to be different now. I'm going to feel more wistful. I'm going to be wishing . . . I don't know what, exactly. Maybe that I didn't post-date Smith's "prime" movie acting by quite so many years. Or maybe that there were more lead roles for her today.
Rating:
Summary: Still a good flick
Review: I saw Maggie Smith in Harry Potter and remembered how much I enjoyed her in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, so I ordered the video. I rarely enjoy films more than once, and older films usually disappoint when re-watched. Not this one. It's still a good story, and is well-acted. I loved Maggie Smith's characterization of Jean Brodie, and the 'Brodie Girls' are still interesting to watch as they interact with each other and Miss Brodie. I watched this movie on a cold winter's evening with a fire in the fireplace, a glass of sherry, and my wife besides me, a pleasant winter's diversion.
Rating:
Summary: And what a wonderful PRIME it is!
Review: I was so incredibly lucky to catch this flick last night on AMC! It was midnight and i had classes the next morning, but when I saw this Maggie Smith film that I had actually never heard of, my interest was sparked. For the next two hours I was transported to Edinburgh. And what a great vacation it was! Maggie Smith is positively brilliant as Miss Brodie. Her "guls" as she pronounces it are breathtaking as well. The actress who plays Mary looks very much like the girl on "The Big Comfy Couch"--I have a very wide range of entertainment interests! :) Everything about this movie is wonderful! I just want it to come out on DVD!
Rating:
Summary: Hold Onto Your Hats -- It's Gonna Be a Bumpy Scottish Ride!
Review: I've always loved this film, but I hadn't seen it in 15 years until I caught it recently on A & E or Bravo (can't remember which now) -- and now I'm going to buy it on video, so I can see it without interruption! Two things that I'd forgotten or missed about the film previously: It's very atmospheric -- Edinburgh in the '30s and the boarding school seem so oppressive and suffocating! And the film is very psychologically complex -- we witness Miss Brodie's gradual breakdown, and it is soon apparent that she is not merely the quirky, eccentric individual she at first seems, but is actually a very pitiable, disturbed, and dangerous person. What a fantastic, frightening work!
Rating:
Summary: Perfect
Review: Ive seen this on Bravo several times... I love it to death! Maggie Smith does a perfect job, and so does Pamila Franklin. They are both incredible actresses. Its never predictable or slow, and by the end you feel a little confused as to which character you ought to love and which you ought to hate. Its splendid!
Rating:
Summary: A film at an impressionable age
Review: Jean Brodie says often: "Give me a girl of impressionable age and I'll make her mine for life". Well I saw this film when it was first out - at an impressionable age - and it remains a particular favourite. An Academy Award performance from Miss Smith. So where is the DVD? Haunting music from Rod McKuen (of all people), and terrific supports from Pamela Franklin, Celia Johnson and Robert Stephens. The script is wise and witty, and the atmosphere of Edinburgh in the 30's just lovely. To be enjoyed on a rainy, misty Sunday afternoon in winter.
Rating:
Summary: She is spectacular
Review: Maggie Smith is always at the top of her form, witty, ironic, twitchy, brilliant - and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is one of her very best roles. Hollywood thought so, too: she won an Oscar for her performance, playing a spinster school teacher in the 30s in Edinburgh. So enamored is she of art, literature, and beauty that she neglects to acknowledge the rising fascism in the real world. Miss Brodie, in her self-proclaimed prime, has her little pet pupils, girls she intends to inspire; she also involves them in the machinations of her meetings with an art teacher, her married lover (and real-life husband). For sheer snobbery, Miss Brodie's outlook cannot be topped. There's a denouement, a comeuppance, that is heartbreaking for more than one of the characters. If ever there were an example of the moral Pride goeth before the fall, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is it.
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