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An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

"Hilary and Jackie" is a film technically beautiful, with magnificent cinematography and music score and top-notch performances, highlighting the lead actresses Emily Watson and Rachel Griffiths. However the screenplay telling the personal life of Jacqueline du Pré from the perpectives of each sister does not work well. Jacqueline du Pré is depicted as a selfish and spoiled woman and it is impossible to the viewer to care to the character shown in the film. Consequently the film has no feelings despite the performance of Emily Watson and looks like a tragic soap-opera. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Hilary and Jackie"

The death of the cellist Jacqueline du Pré in 1987 was the cause of an unusually large amount of public grief and attention in Britain; the passing of a classical musician is normally marked by little more than an obituary in the broadsheet papers and possibly a brief item on the news. Du Pré, however, was someone the British had taken to their hearts. Part of the reason was her special relationship with the Elgar cello concerto, a work which has always played an important part in British cultural life; there may be room for disagreement with all three parts of the analysis, but at the time of her death I remember her being described as the greatest interpreter of the greatest work by the nation's greatest composer.The main reason, however, was the sheer tragedy of her life. She was a youthful prodigy who reached the top very early on; her famous recording of the Elgar concerto with Sir John Barbirolli was made when she was only twenty. Her marriage to the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim made them a Golden Couple, the Dick Burton and Liz Taylor of classical music. And then, while still in her twenties, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She gave her last concert in 1973 at the age of 28, after which her condition quickly deteriorated. By the time of her death aged 42 she had become paralysed and was confined to a wheelchair. The film was based on a memoir written by Jacqueline's sister Hilary and brother Piers and concentrates on the relationship between the two sisters. Hilary du Pré was also a musician, in her case a flautist, but was much less famous than her sister. Even so, the film pays them equal attention, being divided into two sections, the first telling events from Hilary's point of view and the second from Jackie's. Hilary was the older of the two and during their childhood and early teens was regarded as being at least as promising as Jackie. Eventually, however, it was Jackie who achieved greater prominence and Hilary seems to have given up performing as a professional after her marriage to Christopher Finzi, son of the composer Gerald Finzi. Such a scenario could easily have led to bitter jealousy and rivalry, but in this case appears not to have done so; according to the film the sisters were devoted to one another as children and remained so as adults, even though Jackie seems to have done her best to live up to the old stereotype of artistic geniuses as highly-strung, eccentric and temperamental. Hilary, who was probably not a genius, seems to have been much more placid and level-headed, which enables her to cope with her sister's foibles. When Jackie announces that she wants to sleep with Christopher, Hilary acquiesces, believing that this will help her sister's complicated mental state, and even persuades her reluctant husband to consent to this unorthodox "adultery as therapy" arrangement. Of the main actors I was least taken with James Frain as Barenboim, whom he plays with a heavy foreign accent; the real Daniel Barenboim speaks much better English than this. The others, however, are all much better, especially Emily Watson as Jacqueline and Rachel Griffiths as Hilary, both of whom were nominated for Academy Awards. Both lost, Watson to Gwyneth Paltrow in "Shakespeare in Love" and Griffiths to Judi Dench in the same film. In both cases I would disagree with the Academy; Paltrow's performance was not a particularly distinguished one and Griffiths' contribution is much more substantial than Dench's brief cameo. The two actresses seem exquisitely well suited to their roles, with their contrasting styles of acting- Watson's more demonstrative, Griffiths' more restrained- bringing out the contrasting personalities of the two sisters. An adjective commonly used about Elgar's great concerto- which we hear at several key points in the movie- is "autumnal", and the director Anand Tucker seems to be trying to reflect this in the look of the film. Autumnal tones- dark reds, oranges, browns, yellows- predominate throughout much of the film, and most scenes feature a prominent object in one of these colours, often Jacqueline's dresses. Only towards the end are these colours replaced by more wintry greys, whites and pale blues, indicating symbolically that Jacqueline's autumn has now turned to winter during a period of her life which should have been her spring and summer. The film ends with her looking back at her childhood, seeing herself and Hilary playing on the beach as young girls."Hilary and Jackie" was not perhaps the greatest film made in 1998; my vote for "Best Picture" that year would have gone to Peter Weir's astounding "The Truman Show". Nor is it perhaps the greatest ever film about classical music to my mind that must be Milos Forman's equally astounding "Amadeus". It is, however, beautifully written, acted and directed, a riveting psychological portrait of musical genius, of love, of loss, of sisterhood and of understanding. I am surprised that we have not heard more of Anand Tucker since. 9/10 A goof. The film implies that Jacqueline du Pré died during the night of the Great Hurricane, 15th - 16th October 1987- we even see that notorious forecast with Michael Fish denying that a hurricane was on the way. In fact, she died a few days later, on 19th October. This may, however, have been a deliberate change to make the story seem more dramatic.

This film features solid acting with one exception. The actress portraying Jacqueline du Pre is embarrassingly incompetent at imitating cello playing.The story line provides a voyeuristic look into the personal lives of Hillary, Jackie, and their spouses. The film's director claimed not to be too interested in sticking to the facts in this biopic dealing with the lives of many people who are still alive. The late Jaqueline du Pre's husband, Daniel Barenboim, refused to assist with the film and refused to allow any of his late wife's recordings to be used on the soundtrack. So one is left thinking one is hearing du Pre play on the sound track until the closing credits. A cheap deception.A movie supposedly about a great artist that only insults her memory and insults many people still alive.

I put this film on whilst I was doing something else, expecting I could get on with what I was doing and not really pay attention. Needless to say, I didn't get anything done as once the film started going I was gripped and couldn't take my eyes off it. Hilary and Jackie is a biography of the cellist Jacqueline du Pre and her flautist sister Hilary du Pre. At the beginning, both are childhood virtuosos. When they grow up, Jackie goes on a world tour and Hilary stays home to start a family. What follows is a very interesting and gripping story with exceptional acting. The director has also done very well in particular with some of the editing in the music scenes and in the way the film is structured, which was very interesting to watch. As for the acting, Emily Watson in particular was outstanding (I do wonder if I'll ever see a film where she puts in a bad performance.) but it also must be said that Rachel Griffiths and David Morrisey also impressed. Another thing, as it is a musical biopic, you expect good music. This did not disappoint. In fact the film on the whole was so brilliantly done, the only thing I found disappointing was that I didn't get my work done, and I can't really criticise it for that can I?