"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"

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.

In 1950s London, the real-life du Pré sisters--Hilary, a promising flautist, and Jacqueline, an animated, intense cellist--share an ordinary/extraordinary closeness. They are practically telepathic in their thoughts, yet a rivalry over their musical talents is always bubbling under the surface. This extends to their adult lives, as Hilary becomes a devoted wife and mother while Jackie flails away, alternately in contempt of the cello and yet attached to it as if by force. Jackie's neediness, which parlays into an off-putting promiscuousness, nearly breaks the sisterly bond, with Jackie desiring to 'share' Hilary's good-hearted husband. It is at this point in the picture that "Hilary and Jackie" becomes an unfortunate muddle of different melodramatic themes, yet the psychotic undercurrents of Jackie's behavior don't seem to set off any alarms on the screen. As flaky Jackie, Emily Watson (who resembles a young Susannah York) is focused and brave, but she is unable to help us reach this troubled soul (the built-in tragic story-arch doesn't help much, either). Rachel Griffiths has a far less showy role, however her character is one we can relate to (the grounded sister with a firm sense of responsibility). The film is extremely well-produced but, despite some dialogue or situations which ring false, the earliest scenes in the movie are best. It loses its way in the third act, becoming a tangled mess of sad episodes. ** from ****

As a child Hilary was the talented musician on the flute and the younger Jacqueline was encouraged to keep up if she wanted to accompany her sister on trips to musical events. So Jackie practiced hard on her cello to do so, gradually becoming better than her sister. As adults Hilary is now very much in the shadow of her brilliant sister Jackie, who is booked solid for shows. However where Hilary finds happiness and support from her partner and husband Kiffer, Jackie grows increasingly isolated from others. The pair's relationship drifts apart but comes together again to produce one traumatic moment in their relationship.I'm sure it has been done many times but I still found this film's structure to be pretty clever. The central traumatic act in the narrative occurs halfway through the film; up until then we follow things from Hilary's point of view and then in the second half we jump backwards and work up to it again (and beyond) from Jacqueline's (more or less). The effect is that the first half of the film is engaging as it develops along lines we don't know while the second film is engaging as it underpins the reasons for Jacqueline's character and where she goes from there. I put of watching the film because I had no knowledge of the characters and no real interest in their music, however now that I have watched it I am glad I did as it is well made and interesting. It is very character driven and evenly paced, which will annoy some viewers but for me it worked really well and produced a story that didn't require you to know the people involved because you felt you did by the end.Watson leads the cast really well, bringing out the innocent of her character as easily as she does the spite within Jackie. Griffiths yet again shows her talent in taking on yet another accent and strange character and pulling it off. They work well together although their best scenes are early on. Support is good from Frain, Morrissey, Dance, Imrie and others but the film is lead well by the main two actresses who work well with the material given them.Overall this is a well paced film that will annoy some but is heavy in quality. The character development in the script is strong and the cast respond well to it. Tucker controls it all well with a good eye for a scene and some imaginative visual touches and brings out a film that is well-structured and engaging even if it won't be to everyone's tastes.