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HILARY AND JACKIE Send This Review to a Friend
Emily Watson delivers an emotionally charged, carefully structured performance as the lauded but doomed cellist Jacqueline du Pre, whose career and life were cut short by what is known as Lou Gehrig's disease. There has been sniping at the film, which was based on the book "A Genius in the Family" by the cellist's sister and brother, Hilary and Piers du Pre. The issue: how accurately is the portrait of the cellist and her relationships? Whatever the truth, there's no denying the dramatic ability of the film to hold an audience.
Sisterly jealousy and competitiveness run through the story, and since Hilary, the sister and flutist, survived, it's her account that drives the film. Depicted and presumably true, at least with respect to what happened if possibly not in interpretation, is Jackie's sharing of Hilary's husband by Jackie. The cellist is shown pleading with Hilary that she needs sex, a request put more crudely on screen, and asks for the servics of her brother-in-law. Eventually that's what happens and the household will never be the same. Rachel Griffiths is excellent as Hilary, and the various supporting members effectively flesh out the drama.
But it is Watson who captures the film, projecting intensity, humor, erratic behavior, envy, and the agony that results from the illness that takes away her ability to play and kills her. The opportunity for a good score is not missed, including recorded music by Du Pre herself. What begins to wear is the extent to which the artist's suffering is detailed. Perhaps it is necessary in order to show the full extent of the tragedy, but the downside is the risk of giving the film a soap opera tinge. It's quite amazing that this is the first feature film of Anand Tucker, who directed from the angst-filled screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce. An October Films release.
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