Hilary and Jackie (1998)

What makes it different from others?

Touches You

Best movie ever!

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Emily Watson is nothing less than astonishing in this film and what she does is nothing less than the performance of a lifetime. Nominated for an Academy Award (and outrageously not awarded it), Watson IS the character of Hillary Dupree and no one in the audience can deny that fact as she disappears completely into the soul of the cellist. In fact, she mastered the cello totally to play this role and throws herself into the passion of playing with a fire and realism unsurpassed in the history of cinema. While the story is interesting and quite moving, it is Miss Emily Watson who shines like a Supernova here and captures the hearts of audience members. She creates a complex character of flesh and blood and passion that lights up the screen every time the camera focuses on her lovely image. A performance of incredible power that is cinematically historic and artistically magnificent. This is true talent that goes far beyond that to which simple words can ever do justice.

True story about two musician sisters, one a cellist and one a flautist, and the mental illness that plagued the latter (played in an Academy-Award nominated performance by Emily Watson).Rachel Griffiths is the cellist, the more grounded and dependable sister through whose perspective the story is told. There's really not a tremendous lot to distinguish this film apart from the solid performances of the two lead actresses. This film came so closely on the heels of "Breaking the Waves" that I remembered thinking it was already beyond time for Watson to do some light comedy, or at least play a character who wasn't mentally unhinged. She would soon delight me in films like "Cradle Will Rock" and "Gosford Park." Grade: B

It is the almost-bio-pic of British Cellist Jacqueline Du Pre (1945-1987) and her elder sister Hilary (a Flutist). It's about the true love the sisters had for each other and how fate lifted Jacqueline to the top of fame while pushing Hilary to the bottom of it and how it affected their lives. Though the movie is about a great, talented musician Jacqueline, it is not a musical film.I haven't seen such a good real-life-account for a long time. This one is very truthful and not deviating from real-life emotions. The movie is based on the book written by Hilary. There are controversies over this book raised by Jacqueline's fans about her depiction.The movie is mostly the events, emotions and psychological account of its characters Jackie and Hilary. It's a bit of a musical too with some good sound tracks. Jackie (Emily Watson) is the star performer (even on the screen). Hilary comes next. The director has amazingly made this account. When we see Hilary's account we could feel a crushed musician's sadness and when we see Jackie's account we could feel the loneliness and the complex love of Jacqueline with her Cello as well as her sister Hilary.If you are Jacqueline's fan you can watch it only if you don't expect any musical treats of her from the film. As I am not a classical music guy I do not know what I missed about her music.Watch this powerful emotional tragic story.

....a simplification perhaps,but not an absurdity."Hilary and Jackie" presents a version of the life of Miss Jacqueline Du Pre,an extravagantly gifted English cellist whose career and, ultimately, whose life was cut tragically short by M.S.It could have been a moving tribute to a considerable musical talent but it turned out as an exploitative sensationalist hatchet - job worthy of the sleaziest tabloid newspaper. The dreadful signs and symptoms of the final stages of Miss Du Pre's disease are graphically portrayed with the same glee as beggars once used to display their sores and deformities for the delectation of the public. In much the same way that "Lady Sings The Blues" salaciously bared Miss Billie Holiday's very private demons,so this movie is happy to desecrate the memory of a much - loved musician in the name of profit. No matter how good Miss Watson and Miss Griffiths are,they are still participating in a film whose only purpose can be to smear the memory of young woman who was revered by a generation of concert - goers. No amount of subsequent declarations of undying love from Miss Du Pre's guilt - ridden siblings can change that. All we are left with is some cello music that the unwary might think is played by Miss Du Pre.Don't be fooled - it isn't.