Hilary and Jackie (1998)
Director: Anand Tucker Cast: Emily Watson, Rachel Griffiths, James Frain, David Morrissey, Charles Dance, Celia Imrie Screenplay: Frank Cottrell Boyce Producers: Nicolas Kent, Andrew Paterson Runtime: 120 min. US Distribution: October Films Rated R: language, sexuality, disturbing images
Copyright 1998 Nathaniel R. Atcheson
Hilary and Jackie is about two musician sisters and their lives together. As a child, Hilary du Pre (Keeley Flanders) is a phenomenal flautist who overshadows her cellist sister, Jackie (Auriol Evans). The girls love each other very much, but Jackie doesn't like the competition aspect of their lives, forced upon them by their mother (Celia Imrie). So, she quickly masters her instrument, making it clear to everyone that she is a musical genius. Soon, Jackie is the focus of everyone around her.
Inevitably, the girls grow into young women; Jackie (played by Emily Watson as an adult) is now performing solo recitals, but Hilary (Rachel Griffiths) is struggling with her flute lessons. From that point, the film shows us the next twenty years from the perspective of both women. We first see Hilary's life, in which she meets and falls in love with Kiffer Finzi (David Morrissey). The last third of the film is told through Jackie's eyes, and we see her rise into stardom and her decline into multiple sclerosis.
Hilary and Jackie is one of the most masterful films of 1998. Not since The Truman Show have I seen a film that so flawlessly integrates skillful acting, lush cinematography, and a wonderful story into a satisfying, moving motion picture that will resonate in memory long after the credits roll. But it's not just an exercise in good film making -- Hilary and Jackie has a beautiful emotional core that shows us a fascinating relationship between two extremely interesting women.
The first element that most moviegoers are likely to notice is the scenery and cinematography. The film was directed by Anand Tucker, a man who clearly understands that the image on screen needs to be as powerful as the contents of the story. Along with David Johnson's superb cinematography, Tucker has made a film of immense visual wealth. The colors are vibrant and vigorous; later in the film, when Hilary is living in the countryside, the way Johnson photographs the huge, sprawling fields and rolling hills of wildflowers is truly breathtaking. Also notable are the scenes in which Jackie performs the cello -- the passion that emanates through the instrument bursts out of the screen, making every such scene an exciting, visceral experience.
Of course, much of the excitement comes from Emily Watson's performance. Here is a woman who has made three films, and in those three films has proven a range of acting that most experienced actresses will never show. Her first starring role, in Breaking the Waves, earned her an Oscar nomination, and I sincerely hope that she earns the same honor for Hilary and Jackie. I don't know if Watson can really play the cello, but she does a perfect job of pretending in the scenes that require her to perform. But what I really admire about Watson -- and about the entire film, for that matter -- is her emotional honesty. I got lost in her performance, lost in the fact that I was watching someone act.
Rachel Griffiths shows just as much skill as Watson does, even though she doesn't have quite as much material to work with. The film is based on the book A Genius in the Family, written by Hilary and Piers du Pre (it's all based on a true story, just in case you didn't know); the picture could have easily focused on Jackie, and made the relationship a side note in the story. I'm glad that screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce chose not to do this, though, since the relationship between Jackie and Hilary is what makes the film so fascinating: even through all the competition, the two women never stop loving each other. It's one of the most layered, moving relationships to emerge from any film this year. In a year in which so many films have regurgitated themes and images that we've all seen countless times before, the people behind Hilary and Jackie have brought us a visually and emotionally profound film -- a piece of cinematic art that I will never forget.
Psychosis Rating: 9/10
Visit FILM PSYCHOSIS at http://www.pyramid.net/natesmovies
Nathaniel R. Atcheson
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews