THE DAILY TELEGRAPH 22 JANUARY 1999

Playing With Fire

It is oddly comforting if people of prodigious talent paradoxically appear as normal, likable and down to earth as the rest of us.  Yes why should we expect them to be? Genius imposes burdens on those who possess it, and often on those around them. This is the theme of Hilary & Jackie, about the life on the late virtuoso cellist Jacqueline du Pre. The film has aroused much prerelease controversy.  Critics have trashed it for posthumously invading du Pre's privacy and traducing the memory of the Jackie they knew.  Yet it is based on the memoir by her older sister, Hilary, and brother, Piers, who knew her better still.

But Hilary's story is not pretty.  Musically gifted as a girl, she watch Jackie's talent outstrip her own and monopolise her parents' attention.  In later years, Jackie became internationally famous, lonely and depressed, and finally had a breakdown.  One incident related in the film that particularly incensed critics is Hilary allowing her husband Kiffer to sleep with Jackie when she demanded it.

Certainly, Jacqueline is not portrayed as cosy or easy going, but this incident suggests someone at the end of her emotional tether, rather than some voracious tyrant.

In any case screenwriter, frank Cottrell-Boyce and director Anand Tucker (who gives the film a concertos majestic sweep) are telling a story subjectively.  Aiming to be scrupulous, Boyce retells it first from Hilary's viewpoint, then from Jackie's.  This is formally effective, but ethically flawed.  Jacqueline is dead, and it's presumptious to appropriate "her" view.

For all that, it's a stirring, impressive film.  Tucker, in his feature debut, starts and ends with cameras swooping and swirling while the sisters play on a beach as young girls. How did they end up so removed from that carefree innocence?

Emily Watson is remarkable as Jackie, displaying hard-earned authenticity in concert scenes while conveying a troubled soul further buffeted by fame.  Equally splendid is Rachel Griffiths's beautifully modulated work as Hilary, alternately engaging then testing our sympathy.

In strictly cinematic terms Hilary & Jackie is a class act.  Like most people, I never knew Jacqueline du Pre, but I am not convinced that the film sells her memory short.

David Gritten