HILARY AND JACKIE (October) Starring: Emily Watson, Rachel Griffiths, David Morrissey, James Frain. Screenplay: Frank Cottrell Boyce, based on the memoir "A Genius in the Family" by Hilary and Piers Du Pre. Producers: Andy Paterson and Nicholas Kent. Director: Anand Tucker. MPAA Rating: R (sexual situations, profanity, adult themes) Running Time: 121 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
From its opening minutes, HILARY AND JACKIE promises intriguing spins on a couple of time-worn dramatic set-ups: the competitive siblings, and the tortured artistic genius. We first meet our sister protagonists as children in 1950s England -- Hilary Du Pre (Keely Flanders) soaring on the flute while Jacqueline (Auriol Evans) saws flatly on her cello. It is Hilary whose talent lands her on a BBC broadcast, earning her adulation from her parents and others which spurs Jackie to a ferocious commitment to improving her own musical skills. Soon it is Jackie whose performances are receiving standing ovations, the adult Jackie (Emily Watson) who rises to international aclaim while Hilary (Rachel Griffiths) slips into comfortable domesticity with her husband Kiffer (David Morrissey).
Director Anand Tucker's adaptation of Hilary's memoir (co-written with brother Piers) introduces some provocative questions regarding how and why a prodigy becomes an artist. Jackie's success surpasses Hilary's not through superior inate talent, it is suggested, but through superior effort, exemplifying the 99% perspiration in that aphorism about what makes genius. The film also introduces a wild card in the form of the dance and movement classes both girls take, lessons which seem to contribute to Jackie's uniquely passionate style but hinder Hilary's efforts to excel at her own instrument. The tension between the sisters is set in what happens after their apparent childhood destinies flip-flop: how Hilary abandons music altogether, and how Jackie comes to feel trapped by her own success.
If Tucker and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce had explored the siblings' relationship as effectively as they explore their respective careers, HILARY AND JACKIE might have been a brilliant film. As it stands, it's a pretty good one which offers wildly disparate insight into its two main characters. At one point in the first hour, a title card with the single word "Hilary" launches us into one sister's world when Jackie's success first divides them. This leaves us with Hilary, whose interior life is left something of a mystery to us as she chooses marriage and family over music. There's a spark of curiosity as Jackie makes an incredible request of her sister, but we never get a clear enough sense of why Hilary grants that request. The author chooses to remain enigmatic herself, allowing the spotlight to shift entirely to Jackie in this story with the same questionable selflessness she chose in life.
There's hope that their relationship will become clearer when the "Jackie" section begins, but that's not the case. Instead, the story begins a fascinating look at Jackie's love-hate relationship with her music, which she feels is the only reason anyone loves her. Emily Watson gets a showy role as the artist who struggles with her own identity and, eventually, with multiple sclerosis. It's a great performance as a great character, yet it's disappointing that we watch her interact with her cello nearly as much as she interacts with Hilary. Though Jackie's sense of isolation is the theme of the film's second half, it doesn't allow us to understand what these two women were to each other. HILARY AND JACKIE is a revelation when it allows us to see what people surrender for art, as well as why people surrender their art. As a family affair, it's more labor than genius.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 sister acts: 7.
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