THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE: too theatrical to make it real

THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE disguises it's theatrical origins pretty well right up until the grand climax when the schoolteacher protagonist and her young Judas start hurling lines of dialogue at each other such as are heard only in overheated climax scenes played out on stage.
The bitter home truths and angry indignations that spew forth sound like nothing that real people would utter and completely like observations carefully crafted by a playwright or screenwriter intent on using his characters to pass deep and meaningful comment on human nature.
It's totally theatrical and uttery false.

In truth Maggie Smith's entire performance in the title role is theatrical but she's so good at breathing life into Miss Jean Brodie that it's easy to forgive her somewhat larger than life portrayal, right up until the point when the aforementioned contrived denouement exposes the artifice.
Smith's performance takes no prisoners. She literally stormed her way to the Best Actress Oscar in 1969, forcing her co-stars to hang on to her for dear life or face being thrown aside. Robert Stephens plays it broad and manic as the art teacher, married with six kids and obsessed with Miss Brodie, Gordon Jackson stands around open-mouthed too much of the time waiting for his fellow actors to finish their line so he can say his, while Pamela Franklin is implausibly old beyond her years as one of Miss Brodie's "creme de la creme" who curdles.
Despite the blatant theatricality of it all, there's enough nuance in Smith's performance to divide viewers on the goodness or badness of Miss Brodie's intentions. Misguided idealist or sinister manipulator of young minds? - you decide.