This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

A movie about coming to terms with a life that didn't turn out, at you thought it would, about the importance of little things, when the structure itself is crumbling. I don't know exactly what it was about this movie but it just hit me, where i live. I cried my eyes out, and it colored my emotions for weeks after-wards. It deals with most of the issues that an adult is faced with; marriage, work relations, personal identity, etc., from the viewpoint of an aging teacher, who does what he does, except it isn't really working, as he thought would. Social acceptance and respect is missing, his marriage is on the rocks. In a way he is like a mundane Horatio on the bridge, who keeps fighting, knowing all too well, that the fight is lost, hoping perhaps beyond hope, that one small victory is possible.

This was an unexpected jewel of a movie. If you like movies such as "Remains of the Day," you will enjoy this one. Against the backdrop of a traditional boys school in the English countryside, a teacher who is being forced out examines his life. This movie is well-done across the board--the rich if spare script (perfect), the cinematography, a well-integrated score, all perfectly paced. This movie and the characters in it have layers. The acting by Albert Finney and Greta Sacchi is masterful (Michael Gabon is good, too). All that, and it has an honest ending. This movie had my rapt attention from the opening scene, and I am certain to watch it again.

The Browning Version(1994) Director Mike Figgis(Leaving Las Vegas)does a wonderful job in this remake of the 1951 classic about an unpopular teacher( Albert Finney) who realizes his life has been a failure after being forced into early retirement because of a heart condition and his relationship with his 20 year younger unfaithful wife(played by the beautiful Greta Scacchi).Its always a pleasure to see Finney, certainly one of the finest actors alive,and maybe even the best, give a gut wrenching performance as the out of touch teacher forced to face an uncertain future. The excellent supporting cast includes Julian Sands and Matthew Modine. A very intelligent, well made movie recommended for all serious film buffs

It is a lousy remake of what was a superb original film.Certain films have a time and place and this one belongs in a post war grammar/private school and not in a current comprehensive school.The older British grammar schools had good and bad qualities but there was a general aspiration to Greatness. During the 1960s the left wing labour government destroyed anything that was good in British education and replaced it with bland "comprehensiveness". Last year (2004) they apologised and admitted the mistake – a bit late for the unfortunate pupils of the 60s and 70s who were stuck in their dreadful system.The remake is just like the school it is set in, bland and soulless – the ideal training ground for future telephone sanitisers.