Priscilla Review – Priscilla-Elvis' Complicated Marriage in a Strained Drama

Priscilla Review: Last year, we had Elvis Presley's biographical Elvis, and now we have his wife, Priscilla Ann Presley's biopic Priscilla. Has a thing like this ever happened before? I mean, husband and wife having individual biopics in such a quick time? Certainly no. To be frank, Elvis was a legendary figure in his field, and he lived a very controversial life, so he kind of made a perfect filmy script. The point is that he deserved that biopic. Now, can I say the same for Priscilla? After watching Priscilla, my answer should be "NO". Yet, this film can be watched once for Cailee Spaeny's beautiful portrayal of Priscilla Presley and Jacob Elordi's classy accent of Elvis Presley—not looks.In the late 50s, 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny) is residing in Germany as her father is stationed in the military. At a party, she meets Elvis (Jacob Elordi) for the first time. After a silent first meeting, Elvis finds Priscilla attractive and calls her for a date. They both begin seeing each other, while Pris' parents keep complaining about the same. Priscilla keeps getting insulted and humiliated in this relationship and yet carries it forward. Presley's affairs and personal political frustration are clearly visible, but every time he successfully manages to convince Priscilla to come back to him. They both marry despite the age gap, and then Priscilla begins sensing the isolation and compartmentalization, which leads the way to the rest of the plot, but there is hardly anything that deserves to be comprehended.Sofia Coppola's script doesn't really hold you much in its grip, and the screenplay is very slow. When a 110-minute film feels slow, believe me, there is something wrong with it. It's maybe because Priscilla's life wasn't full of headlines. She kept fighting herself and was never able to bring it on her external appearance. Maybe because she was paired with the man who had a publicly exposed image and somewhere she felt that pressure. The scenes like high school gossip, the graduation ceremony, Elvish's departure for the military, and that family photoshoot have given a pretty good idea of the self-complexity of Priscilla. After all, she was married to a superstar, and nobody can deny that fact. She had to battle that fact, and then she had a baby to carry his blood forward. There is nothing dramatic about the whole marriage life, and that's why this movie fails to entertain you and keep you hooked.The biggest plus point of the film is Cailee Spaeny's dedicated performance. She looked like Priscilla, that's one thing, but she was able to bring that persona on screen without saying much. Sometimes silence speaks louder than words, they say, and here is one of the situations where it fits right. Cailee's gorgeous face will take your heart away, for sure. Jacob Elordi has done tremendously well when it comes to Elvis' accent and body language, but man, don't ask if he looked like Presley. He was looking more like Austin Butler than Elvis Presley, and the fun part is that Butler looked exactly like Elvis in Elvis. This was a big mismatch, but not as a performer, but as a lookalike. Ari Cohen and Dagmara Domińczyk have a few scenes here and there, and like most of the supporting cast, they go unnoticed. Now, do I have to mention the supporting cast separately?

Getting an original motion picture soundtrack for Priscilla was a challenging call, and the team deserves to be hailed for that. Some of the tunes do feel nostalgic, especially with the visuals featuring mainly Elvis and Priscilla. The art design and production design are fine. Philippe Le Sourd's cinematography is okay, while Sarah Flack's editing lacks sharpness. Sofia made one big mistake with the film: she gave a lot of importance and screen space to Elvis. The film was Priscilla's biopic, but it is presented as her marriage life, hence making Elvis the hero. Somehow, he overtook the space, and the main character got into a competition, which shouldn't have happened. Of course, Elvis' character was damn important, but he was never the main character. He was always supposed to be the second-main character. Sofia felt more interested in glorifying Elvis' wrongdoing, and Priscilla was a poor little girl. That was part of the process to create sympathy for her character, but you end up feeling pity for her. Even in the last frame, when she is leaving Elvis at once, Sofia has to show Elvis' fans cheering for him. With some mistakes like this here and there throughout the film, Sophia Coppola's Priscilla seems stained and a pretty average flick. To keep you awake, there are a lot of steamy smooching scenes, so make sure you don't miss them.