Hilary and Jackie
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Hilary and Jackie is a 1998 movie directed by Anand Tucker and written by acclaimed British screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce, starring Emily Watson and Rachel Griffiths as the sisters Jacqueline and Hilary du Pré. The movie is based on Hilary du Pre's book A Genius in the Family, about her sister Jacqueline, an acclaimed cellist.
The movie begins with Hilary and Jackie as children being taught by their mother to dance and play musical instruments; cello for Jackie and flute for Hilary. Jackie does not take practising seriously at first, but when she does, she becomes a virtuoso, quickly rising to international prominence. Marriage to pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim (played by James Frain) follows. Hilary, on the other hand, plays in a community orchestra and marries Christopher Finzi (also referred to as "Kiffer," played by David Morrissey), the son of composer Gerald Finzi. The film, though focused primarily on Jacqueline, is ultimately about the relationship between the two sisters and their dedication to one another; to help Jacqueline through a nervous-breakdown, Hilary consents to Jacqueline having an affair with Kiffer.
The last quarter of the movie chronicles in painful, graphic detail the last fifteen years of Jacqueline's life, during which she is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and as a result loses control of her nervous system, becomes paralyzed, goes deaf and mute, and finally dies as a shell of her former beauty and glory. The film ends with Jacqueline's ghost standing on the beach where she used to play as a child, watching herself and her sister frolicking in the sand as little girls.
This movie was rated R by the MPAA for language and sexuality in the USA but is a '15' certificate in the UK.
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