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The Browning Version Review: Versatile Albert Finney is at home in the role of Crocker-Harris, a gruff schoolmaster who requires his high-born brats to recite Aeschylus in the original Greek. When Taplow presents him the Browning version on a soccer field, Finney weeps unsentimentally; his tears contain salt, not sugar. His brilliant performance reminds us all of the unfeeling classroom overlord we hated in our school days but later grew to love in the hurly-burly of everyday life for which he prepared us. Scriptwriter Ronald Harwood's rendition of the Terence Rattigan play on which the film is based has obvious strengths and weaknesses. One of the strengths is the subtle parallels -- between Agamemnon and Crocker-Harris and between Taplow and Crocker-Harris -- that illuminate Finney's character. One of the weaknesses is the melodramatic speech at the end. Scacchi has sufficient spleen to make her character believable, and young Silverstone exhibits sensitivity as Taplow. The Browning Version is a worthy film that received mixed reviews, perhaps because the naysayers incorrectly translated and interpreted its main character. Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide

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