Hilary ... Jackie

A BIOPIC of the renowned cellist Jacqueline du Pre, based on her sister's book A Genius in the Family, this worthy but less-than-pleasant psychodrama charts the parallel lives of supertalented, tortured Jackie (Emily Watson) and her quietly-spoken sister Hilary (Rachel Griffiths).

The book, according to an acquaintance who dared to dive into it once, is one of the dullest and most painfully-written tomes ever to bestride a bookshelf, but the film is a tight, well-written and sometimes powerful affair, although it's a tragedy if there ever was one, and it's unlikely to have people rolling in the aisles.

There are few sights more harrowing than watching a free-spirited female descend into madness, and there are few actresses as suited to the job-description as Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves). An emotional tornado, Watson's astonishing performance singlehandedly enlivens what might otherwise have been a crushingly dull film - she piles it on as high and low as humanly possible, with a face capable of conveying enormous joy, terrible pain, and everything in between.

Sharing a screen with her must be a thankless task, and Griffiths can't help but not be noticed - which is okay, since Hilary's life is by far the less interesting of the two.

The mood of the film is relentlessly sombre and melancholic, and the film probably suffers as a result, concentrating excessively on the demons that finally killed du Pre, without adequately illustrating the joy and fire that must have driven her in the first place. Still, Watson's performance is a force of nature, and if Hilary ... Jackie doesn't really cut the mustard as Friday-night popcorn, it still holds up as a loving and sympathetic portrayal of a truly tortured soul.