I finally went to see Hilary and Jackie.  Overall, I considered it a good
movie but far from excellent.  The middle of the movie which concerned the
wife-husband-sister goings-on was very boring and trivial to me.  If my
wife was not with me, I would have left the theatre.  I did find the first
and last 3rd of the movie interesting and very well done.

Concerning musical involvement, I was amazed at how little of the film
dealt with this area.  The petty family stuff was evidently thought to
appeal to viewers more than the musical content.  Oh well, that's
entertainment.

Other perceptions I had:

a.  These folks had much trouble recognizing and respecting reasonable
"boundaries."

b.  People with "extraordinary" skills or talents are not extraordinary
people.  To consider them extraordinary does them no favors in dealing
with life issues.

c.  Emily Watson had a significant amount of hair on her arms.  I notice
these little things.

d.  I did not think that Jackie was portrayed all that badly.  Perhaps
she was very self-absorbed and inconsiderate, but it would be reasonable
to expect that given the upbringing.

e.  The actor portraying Barenboim did a poor job.

f.  The Elgar concerto is a masterful work.

Actually, seeing this movie was a compromise between my wife and I.  Her
first choice was "Shakespeare in Love"; I wanted no part of his plays
or life.  My first choice was some highly rated movie about 3 guys who
discover a large sum of money from a plane crash, decide to keep it, but
their greed leads to big trouble.  I wish we had seen that movie, because
I can accurately state that I did not learn one single thing from Hilary
and Jackie, musical or otherwise.  The popcorn wasn't too good either.

Don Satz
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