User reviews

Don't get me wrong, I like Judy Davis & I like this movie because of the nice chemistry between her and Sam Neill. Sam sure was handsome when he was younger (still looks good now too, though).

In the end I didn't get the main character because her behavior didn't make a lot of sense to me. If Sam Neill's character was an idiot I would understand, but he was about as perfect for Davis' character as she could ever hope for & her "career" didn't seem like much of a lifestyle......so her actions left me perplexed.

Still, the movie was well done & the scenery was interesting. It kept me engaged until the end....however, when the final credits rolled I was left scratching my head.

An impossibly young Judy Davis is the star of "My Brilliant Career" - the movie that started hers - a 1979 film directed by Gillian Armstrong. The story concerns Sybylla, growing up in the 1890s in the wilds of Australia who wants more from her life than marriage. She is sent to live with her grandmother, where relatives tame her wild hair, soften her coarse skin, but can't do anything about her spirit. Though she falls for a wealthy young man (Sam Neil), she is true to what her heart tells her, desiring most of all to be a writer and an independent person.

Davis does a wonderful job as Sybylla who, although headstrong, manages to make the best of whatever situation she's in. What a life for women back then. Her family can't afford to keep her, so there is pressure on her to marry or take a position. Living with her grandmother affords her some great opportunities for a better life. But when her father owes a local farmer money, she is sent to teach his illiterate children in order to work off the loan. Somehow, she turns that into a positive experience - though when you see the beginning scenes of her life there, you won't imagine she ever could. Sam Neil is very attractive and romantic as Harry, who endeavors to understand this unusual woman.

Beautifully photographed, "My Brilliant Career" is nevertheless no big, sweeping epic, and the focus stays on Sybylla, her challenges, and her determination to be, in every sense, ahead of her time.

Judy Davis, as Sybylla Melvin, struggles with the conflicts that we all have between ambition, family, love, and guilt in a most remarkable manner. Sybylla grows to understand that life is a series of trade-offs, and that no one can have it all, and that no one can please everyone. Simple yet universal themes told with charm, wit, and a vulnerability that allows us to get right inside of her character and to understand her --- up to a point that is, a career is vital but I don't believe I'd have the strength to pass up Sam Neill under any circumstances, especially as cute as he is in this movie. In fact, all the acting is great, and the cinematography is breathtaking. Gillian Armstrong has been my idol ever since she made this magnificent film. I give it a 10.

It's 1897 rural Australia. It's rough living in a patriarchal society. Sybylla Melvyn (Judy Davis) has many big dreams. She wants a grand career rather than a marriage. Her mother tells her that they can't keep her anymore. She is sent away to live with her rich grandmother. She is excited at first by the change. She is soon pursued by the Frank Hawdon (Robert Grubb) and childhood acquaintance Harry Beecham (Sam Neill). She refuses to be married off. She grows closer and closer to Harry.

These are two great young Aussie actors. The story meanders a bit. My best comparison is Anne of Green Gables without the humor. Without the humor, Sybylla comes off a little more huffy. Judy Davis is a very appealing actress. The back and forth in the romance is quite compelling. It's an empowering story and there's also the acting. The cinematographer is also great.

My mother took me to see this film when I was ten, the year before she died. It changed my entire perspective on the world, set me free from the constraints of fairy tales and inspired me to do something worthwhile with my life (write). I've seen it a few times since then, and found it improved in pace with my understanding.

Apparently Judy Davis didn't like this character or sympathize with her. All I can say is that I'm glad she went ahead and took the role anyway. Sybylla is like Cinderella with a twist worthy of M. Night Shymalan.

The film is sometimes beautiful and lyrical, sometimes depressing and ugly. At all times it is believable because the forces driving Sybylla transcend time and place: creativity and independence. This film taught me that a gilded cage is still a cage.

Even twenty odd years after I first saw it, this film makes me want to cheer. Gillian Armstrong, if you're out there, thank you!

Australia, 1890s. A young woman, Sybylla Melvyn, is stuck in a rural area but dreams of a career in the arts, ideally as a writer. Her ambitions are at odds with her family's aims for her and with broader society's views on a woman's path in life. She meets a young man and the two are soon close. Will she have to choose between her career and him?

Interesting movie, covering themes of independence and self-reliance, women's rights, love vs career. Developed in a way that demonstrates the painful choices Sybylla has to make and how she has to suffer and sacrifice to forge her own path and pursue her dreams.

Emotional ending that ties everything together quite nicely.

However, far from perfect. The movie drifts and plods along at times, especially in the middle section. It also concentrates heavily on the romantic side, at the expense of Sybylla's literary/artistic side. We don't really see Sybylla's career develop (though we do know she has literary and artistic talent), so the two parts to her dilemma are not given equal weight.

Overall: worth watching but can drag at times.

Gillian Armstrong's valentine to Miles Franklin's classic novel is one of the most beautiful movies ever made, and my personal favorite to watch over and over again. The photography is brilliant and Judy Davis delivers and unforgettable performance. She really takes you inside the head and soul of a very complex character who is alienated, fascinated, and bemused by the role she has been given to play in life. Every mother should show this movie to her teenage daughter. It may be the last chance you have to laugh together.

A headstrong young woman comes of age in the Austalian outback during the early 20th century. There is hardly any plot to drive the narrative, causing the film to drag despite the relatively short running time. Not only does the plot meander somewhat, but also the motivations of the central character are unclear. She is supposed to be an ambitious feminist, but she comes across as a confused woman who's only goal is to stay unmarried. Davis is good in her first starring role, although it's hard to buy her as the ugly duckling that the film portrays her as. Neill is young and handsome but rather bland as her suitor.

Judy Davis is Sybylla, a girl of the Australian outback around 1909. As portrayed by Davis, in her breakthrough role, Sybylla is a font of boundless energy wanting desperately to escape the backwardness of her young life. Sam Neill, also in one of the significant early roles of his career, is likewise charming as the young man who presents her with a tempting alternative to her ambition to become a writer and escape the frontier life forever.

This is not a great or epic story, certainly, but it is a quiet, rewarding story of a young woman's quest for a better life. A worthy entry among the films that marked the ascendancy of the "Australian Renaissance" in film-making during the 1970s; director Armstrong would go on to make such films as "Mrs. Soffel" and the 1994 "Little Women."

I watched this movie expecting to be bored stiff, but was pleasantly surprised! This genre of film-making I usually find no interest in, but this one proved to be different. It was well written, well directed, very well acted, and the chemistry between the players was incredible! Very rarely do I view a movie that has a perfect combination of actors, and this was one. Judy Davis and Sam Neill were incredible together, and I'm happy to say they would be in two other films together after this one. Everything about this movie was wonderful. It's just too bad it ends when it does. I found myself very interested in the characters, and wanted to know what became of each. My only qualm with the movie is that it ended too fast! I would definitely have to call this a favorite! That's how good this movie is!

Nominated for best costumes, My Brilliant Career takes place in australia. Sybylla (Twice nominated Judy Davis) goes to live with relatives in 1897, and gets two offers of marriage from quite different men (played by Sam Neill and Robert Grubb). Beautiful countryside scenery. odd dynamics between Sybylla and her suitors.... she's quite melancholy about her plain looks, and everyone she speaks to agrees that she's not the prettiest thing around. kind of sad, that no-one gives her any encouragement or can find anything to compliment about her. She doesn't love either of the men, so she'll have choices to make, since she's not willing to settle for less than a loving relationship. It's pretty long. and pretty slow. Directed by Gill Armstrong. trials and tribulations of an ozzie.

Determined to have a career and not just be a housewife like so many women of her generation, a headstrong young lady in 1890s rural Australia rebuffs marriage proposals and ignores advice of how to act ladylike in this critically acclaimed drama starring Judy Davis. The film wears its pro-feminist heart on its sleeve, however, it impressively shies away from being angry about the situation for women at the time with Davis more often painted as a hopeless dreamer than a subjugated hero wanting to break free. One's mileage with the film is, however, likely to vary depending upon how one relates to the Davis character. There is certainly a lot to like in the almost childlike dreams she has for a career in the arts, but she more often comes across as confused and uncertain than ambitious and set on changing her fortunes. Several of her not-so-ladylike actions (sitting in trees where men can see up her skirt; pillow fighting) also come across as more whimsical than rebellious and it is harder to cheer on someone just being themselves than someone with a set agenda and values that they are intent on adhering to. It is a minor quibble perhaps, and with accurate period sets and Oscar nominated costumes, the film certainly captures the flavour of rural Australia very well. Sam Neill also has a nice, understated performance as a man who Davis briefly has a romantic fling with and Wendy Hughes is solid as her spinster aunt who has trouble reigning her in, but relating to the main character seems to be key in appreciating what the film has to offer.

Usually I'm not too interested in these kinds of films, but i found myself becoming involved in the characters and their lives. The movie was very well done, and it explores many of the social gender roles that are still applicable today.

It is a funny, yet serious movie, that has some deep undertones.

I would recommend watching it.

I just bought the Australian DVD release of My Brilliant Career. All I can say it was worth every penny.

I don't need to go into the specifics of the plot. There are plenty of comments listed on IMDb already. But the peformances, by then new and upcoming actors Judy Davis and Sam Neill, are beautifully timeless!! It's everything I'd hoped for and more. It just gets better with repeated viewings.

Made on a shoestring budget by new director Gillian Armstrong, the commentary provided by her on the recently released Australian DVD in widescreen is a real treat to listen to! You'll chuckle at the stories she tells on how cast and crew achieved what you see on screen when little or no money was left in the budget. And you'll realize how lucky and fortunate Armstrong and producer Margaret Fink were at landing Judy Davis to play Sybylla.

My Brilliant Career is currently out-of-print in the USA. Don't know why, but currently a DVD is out in Australia and the UK only. If only the Criterion Collection would select this film for a DVD release in the USA.....

I've seen a lot better, but it's not bad. it's just not my style.

The previous comment suggested fast-forwarding through the movie to the denouement. If you do this you will lack a true understanding of just how important the choices made in the end are to the character Sybylla.

Unless you watch a movie in its entirety you cannot say you have truly seen the movie. A movie may also move at a pace that you are not used to and the pace of a specific film is chosen for a reason. If the viewer stops to think about just why the final cut moved at that pace he or she may glean something quite important about that particular film.

Beauty is in the eye of beholder. Australia does not possess (in the area where this movie was filmed) bold colors and subtlety was what was wont for this film.

I rated it quite highly for many reasons including Judy Davis' acting, the strength with which the director was able to convey its message, the strong supporting cast, the exquisite shots (particularly in their composition) often lengthy in duration that so wonderfully show what action/adventure films cannot including again subtlety, nuance and the ability to make the viewer actually think-both during and for long after the film is viewed

Adapted from Miles Franklin's eponymous novel published in 1901, which was written while the author was still a teenager, MY BRILLIANT CAREER, Aussie director Gillian Armstrong's feature debut made when she was 29, not only puts a young Judy Davis on the map as a formidable thespian, but also is immanent in effusing the story's heartening feminist viewpoint, and with hindsight, it is an inviting, robust production orchestrated with sublime delicacy and forward- looking brio.

Our heroine Sybylla (Davis), a young girl living with her family in the outback in the late 19th century, is the eldest of the brood, she is an unruly force of nature who aspires to a life steeped in literature, music and art, which sounds detrimentally airy-fairy for her strapped parents, they float the idea of a domestic job to her, as a way to shuck off another mouth to feed, and it enrages her. So when her well-heeled matrilineal grandmother's invitation arrives, it brings immense elation to her, maybe, finally she can be delivered from the sticks and all the menial labor.

Ensconced in a modestly plush rural estate, Sybylla has to stomach the affront that her plain looks are being openly addressed, often in front of her presence, a below-par trait doesn't fall in with the family's old money grandeur, and she is the ugly duckling, but swimming against the tide, she has no desperation/illusion to become a swan, she won't bat an eyelid to an oleaginous suitor for whom she has no affection, and unthinkingly returns bold backchat to her stern grandma Mrs. Bossier (Britton) when marriage is propounded because she is nubile, she doesn't want to get married, as later she confides to Harry Beecham (Neill), a childhood friend of gilded youth to whom she grows closer and vice versa, she must discover herself first, before even considering of becoming a part of someone else's life. This isn't exactly an earth-shattering idea of a woman's liberation, but here, owing to Ms. Davis' electrifying performance, Sybylla's rite-of-passage shapes into a page-turner, implacable in its torrid mobility (a pillow fight with Harry in the lush garden is a shorthand of their youthful exuberance) and undertows (her pertness can be read as a coping mechanism countervailing her entrenched low self-esteem because of her unassuming appearance).

No one can negate there is love between Sybylla and Harry, but as she contests, why love must lead to marriage? There are alternatives, and she firmly stands her ground, especially after the stint as a governess to teach a bunch of illiterate children of a farmer family, she finds her vocation in words and literature, wherein she starts her brilliant career as a writer.

One of the most incredible merits of this Antipodean pastoral is that it doesn't come off as cloying or priggish out of its constant-trodden story-line of a young woman's unorthodox choice with regards to love, life and self-discovery. Around a pyrotechnic Judy Davis, whose glints of emotion are so sharp-edged and entrancing, the peripheral players are also cracking: a young Sam Neill is the projected prince charming but is also seethed with a farrago of contradictions and mix- feelings in mooning over a jolie-laide; Wendy Hughes is pretty radiant as the benign aunt Helen, whose caring nature doesn't prevent her from giving one of the wisest nuptial advice: the best marriage is a friendship marriage. Aileen Britton and Patricia Kennedy (as Harry's aunt Gussie), both hold sway with poise and majesty as two august dowagers, whereas the latter graces her comportment with conspiratorial discernment, the former carries more weight in her role as the high priest of tradition.

As a whole, MY BRILLIANT CAREER belongs to the high rung of period filmmaking and more extraordinarily, it is done with economy and Ms. Armstrong's scrupulous attention to all the niceties, many kudos to this criminally undervalued female filmmaker.

Drought and a series of poor business decisions reduce her family to subsistence level, her father begins to drink excessively, and Sybylla struggles to deal with the monotony of her life. To her relief, she is sent to live on her grandmother's property, where life is more comfortable. There she meets wealthy young Harry Beecham, who loves her and proposes marriage; convinced of her ugliness and aware of her tomboyish ways, Sybylla is unable to believe that he could really love her. By this time, her father's drinking has got the family into debt, and she is sent to work as governess/housekeeper for the family of an almost illiterate neighbour to whom her father owes money. She finds life there unbearable and eventually suffers a physical breakdown which leads to her return to the family home. so i am very much inspired from this muvie so that i got my career through this

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Sybylla Melvyn (Judy Davis) is a very odd woman who just doesn't fit in to the times in which she lives. The film is set in Australia around 1890 and Sybylla has all sorts of very modern feminist notions...which weren't exactly practical or expected back in the day. Unlike the average lady who was looking to snag a good husband, Sybylla wants to be independent...to write and see the world. But she isn't rich nor is she particularly attractive and her family urges her to accept the marriage offers she's received. She, on the other hand, doesn't mind telling these men 'no'. What's to become of Sybylla and her notions of life?

This is a lovely film to look at with the lovely costumes and outdoor settings. However, it's also a bit slower paced and deliberate than many films...so you might want to consider this when you think about watching the movie. It also is quite melancholy and if you expect a nice, happy ending...you'll likely be disappointed. Still, I enjoyed the film and its message of a woman desperately wanting more out of life is striking to watch.

Judy Davis impresses mightily as a free-spirited young girl living in late 19th century Australia, and a very youthful Sam Neill pops up as her somewhat meeker potential suitor.

I tend to love movies set in the past where ahead-of-their-time people rebel against the stultifying values of yesteryear. You can't say a lot happens in this particular offering, but what it does have is great acting and a very clear sense of where it wants to go.

Based around a real-life autobiography, it certainly rings with authenticity in terms of period detail and the rigid societal culture back then. A lot of viewers though, after its finished will be asking themselves though: Did she make the right choice?

Based on the evidence, I would have to say: Yes! 6/10.

Well clearly I form the minority report of reviewers on IMDB for this one, but I thought this movie was slow and lacked charm. Fast forward Jane Austin 100 years and transport her to Australia and you would get a far more captivating and racier equivalent of the book. Have Merchant-Ivory make the movie and you would get a far more charming film version. The actors are a fine ensemble, probably among the best that Oz could offer at the time, but they were wasted on this dross. I was hoodwinked into seeing this movie by the good reviews and urge caution amongst discerning film lovers. Alternatively, you could do as we did: watch the first 10 to 15 minutes to get a feel for it and watch the rest on fast forward until the last five minutes. It might be worth investing half an hour just to say that you've seen it and believe me you'll miss little by whizzing through the middle 80 minutes.