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Hilary and Jackie
Metascore
78 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 21
  3. Negative: 1 out of 21
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  1. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Edward Guthmann
    100
    Emily Watson is ravishingly good -- and brings an amazing focus and intensity to what could have been a disease-of-the-week picture.
  2. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    100
    It is a triumph, and one of 1998's few "don't miss" motion pictures.
  3. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    100
    One of the most insightful and wrenching portraits of the joys and tribulations of being a classical musician ever filmed.
  4. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Troy Patterson
    91
    Neither the stars' harmonious interplay nor director Anand Tucker's insistent urbanity of camera work can disguise that the cello drama is melodrama.
  5. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    90
    This sensitively directed film is one of those rarest of accomplishments: a graceful work of art about the very creation of art itself.
  6. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Joshua Klein
    90
    An astoundingly moving and elegiac meditation on life, love, music, and the bonds of blood.
  7. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    90
    It takes two to be sisters, two to have a rivalry, and two exceptional actresses to turn Hilary and Jackie into a compelling look at the most intimate and troubling of family dynamics.
  8. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    88
    The movie makes no attempt to soften the material or make it comforting through the cliches of melodrama.
  9. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    80
    First-time feature director Tucker displays an astonishingly assured touch, allowing his phenomenal cast to creep into their characters' skins and surrounding them with images of shimmering and slightly threatening beauty.
  10. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Jimmy Fowler
    80
    The movie felt fresh and resonant in spite of its overall familiarity.
  11. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    80
    Told from both women's points of view, this fascinating, if sometimes overwrought, tale packs a wallop.
  12. Variety
    Reviewed by: David Stratton
    80
    Eye-grabbing performances from Emily Watson and Rachel Griffiths, who portray celebrated British cellist Jacqueline Du Pre and her older sister, Hilary, distinguish this ambitious but flawed biography.
  13. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    80
    Hilary and Jackie plumbs the cistern of family dysfunction and musical genius to profound and haunting effect.
  14. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    80
    The movie is exquisitely directed by Anand Tucker in an anti-documentary style that sometimes fractures the time sequence, sometimes re-creates moments impressionistically instead of objectively and is vivid in style.
  15. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Mark Caro
    75
    Gripping in purely cinematic terms as an imaginatively told tale of sibling rivalry and the pressures of great expectations.
  16. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    75
    The wildly ambitious but flawed biographical film about the English cellist Jacqueline du Pré.
  17. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: Anthony Lane
    70
    The sense of period, of ungainly English pride, is funny and acute, but the movie mislays its sense of wit as the girls grow up.
  18. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Russell Smith
    67
    For all its knock-'em-dead acting and aggressively stylish direction, Hilary and Jackie is still best described as arthouse comfort food.
  19. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    60
    Hilary and Jackie tries far too hard to dictate emotional involvement right out of the gate, and you're left counting off the doom-laden cues for things that are sure to return full circle.
  20. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    50
    As drama, Hilary and Jackie is merely sketchy and superficial. As a portrait of the artist, it's puritanical crap.
  21. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: Allan Ulrich
    25
    You may have surmised that Americans have held the copyright on turning out awful movies about serious musicians (especially musicians with physical or mental afflictions), but along comes the high-gloss weepie.
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User Reviews

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User Score
8.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. PatC.
    7
    A lot of gaps interspersed with other scenes that drag. The story was OK but did not have the comprehensive feel that the importance of character's efforts implied. But a good movie for what Emily Watson did with her role. She steals the show.… Full Review »
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