PRISCILLA – Review

Woo boy, here’s a new flick that’ll make the multiplex shake, rattle, and roll (well, the screens that aren’t still running the Taylor Swift concert juggernaut). Yes, it’s a brand-spankin’ new biopic centered around the king of rock and roll, the ruler of Graceland, the ….whoa, wait a minute! This is 2023, not 2022, Last Christmas we got a big-budget musical docudrama all about the man who was always “takin’ care of business” from Baz Luhrmann. Yes, and this is quite a different spin. For one thing, it’s from an indie studio with a more modest budget. There is a highly regarded director behind this, but rather than focusing on “E” or “the Colonel” it follows the path of the “Queen of the King”. As the title implies, this is the story of PRISCILLA.

This look at her life with EP begins after he’s gone into the Army and is stationed over in Germany. In the military diner, we first encounter the 14-year-old “Army brat” Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny) as she enjoys a milkshake at the counter, She’s approached by another high-ranking soldier, the entertainment co-ordinator of the base, who invites her to a party being held for their most famous recruit. After much pleading with her parents and a visit from that officer, she’s allowed to attend. There she is naturally dazzled by the charismatic Private Presley (Jacob Elordi). Soon he escorts her away from the other partygoers for a private “chitchat”. He’s smitten as Priscilla seems to be more of a regular “downhome” gal, briefly kissing her before she is driven back home. Soon, they begin a secret courtship, always with escorts, causing her to daydream of a future with him while distracted at school. Priscilla is heartbroken when Elvis finishes his “stint” and flies back home to restart his career in music and the movies. The two continue to communicate via letters and phone calls, as he insists that all the fan magazine romance stories with his co-stars are lies. Ann Elvis does come back to her and asks her parents to sign an agreement making her the ward of his Papa Vernon and promising that she will finish her education in Memphis while living in her own room at his estate Graceland. There it’s all-day parties with EP and his “Memphis mafia” and long lonely days when he’s off at a movie set. The romance has its ups and downs as Elvis molds her (makeup and fashions) into his “ideal woman” before marrying her. Years pass, they have a daughter Lisa Marie, and their mutual dependence on pills and booze begins to take its toll. Priscilla’s fantasy of her perfect life with her dream man starts to crash and crumble.

Anchoring the love story at the film center is the title role performance by a most compelling young actress. Though she’s had several supporting roles in TV and the movies. Ms. Spaeny gives Priscilla a real arc as she begins to mature from a pre-teen to a strong-willed young mother. In the beginning of the relationship, Spaeny conveys the all-consuming awakening of first love, drifting as though on a cloud, apart from the mere mortal teenagers in her school hallway. Soon we see her deal with the pangs of jealousy, working up the courage to confront her famous beau. Spaeny makes it seem as though Priscilla is passive as her look is formed, but her eyes tell us that she knows that something is very “off”. Over time she shows us how Mrs. P strived to break out of her hubby’s long shadow. Elordi plays him with loads of genteel Southern charm (perhaps it was the sound system, but I lost lots of words due to that strong drawl), especially as the chaste, respectful suitor. Later he reveals his manipulative darker side with the dress shop scene invoking Scotty’s “makeover mania” from VERTIGO. Then the fame and the drugs seem to seal him off emotionally, as Elordi makes E more distracted and secretive, exploding in quick scary outbursts followed by pleading apologies. In much smaller roles (mainly in the first act) Dagma Dominczyk and Art Cohen are effective as the wary parents of Ms. P, while Tim Post is a grumpy Vernon, always looking out for his “boy”.

Directing this new look at the music icon through the eyes of his first true love is Sofia Coppola who also wrote the adaptation of Priscilla’s memoir “Elvis and Me” that she penned with Sandra Harmon. And though it may have followed that tome very closely, the pacing is dragged down by the near-endless scenes of Presley playing with his posse while his wife sulks, then dealing with her loneliness as he leaves for a concert or a film, then starting the cycle again (yes, I’m sure that’s much like her life then but it becomes so tiring). The sets evoke the locales and the costumes and hairstyles give the film a real nostalgic authenticity. But after the stylish splash and “eye candy’ of last winter’s spectacle, it all feels somber and “scaled down” with the feel of a TV movie. However, the biggest absence is the King’s music itself. There are a few fleeting chords of classics, but the estate wouldn’t okay their use. Yes, there are a few songs, but on the first “date”, Elvis regales the partygoers with a hit from another 50s icon. That may turn off his ardent fans along with eschewing the sweetness of Baz’s take to this “groomer” of a child ten years his junior (accentuated by the height difference between the two leads). Also, the film ends too abruptly with no postscript to the lead’s life post-Memphis. Ms. Spaeny and Mr. Elordi are very good, but they can’t quite inject a spark into the whirlwind romance of Elvis and PRISCILLA.

2.5 Out of 4

PRISCILLA is now playing in select theatres