Portrait of Jennie
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Movie Reviews of Portrait of Jennie
Movie Review: Pompous 40's bullpucky
Summary: 3 Stars
Smothered like a fly in amber inside this slab of pretentious middlebrow kitsch is an intriguing concept: Joseph Cotten's struggling artist is visited periodically by a mysterious young woman (Jennifer Jones, the producer's wife oddly enough) who grows older each time they meet. Val Lewton could have pulled it off at RKO in 80 minutes with a fifth of the budget of this film. However, David Selznick apparently was so anxious to display his own profundity that he overdoes everything, from the non-stop Debussy on the soundtrack to the turgid cinematography. At least he had good taste in women.
Movie Review: Portrait of Jennie
Summary: 3 Stars
I remember watching this when I was a little girl. As an adult I still enjoy the story as it is so unusual. Jennifer Jones is excellent in this story; somehow portraying a young girl as she ages to a young woman.
The quality of this dvd (not movie) is poor. I don't know if the original film is so degraded that this is the best copy they can make or if I just received a poor copy. It was still worth watching.
If you like odd, slightly eerie, storylines you will appreciate this movie. If you like movies that wrap up all aspects of the storyline this movie isn't for you.
Movie Review: Worth seeing, but...
Summary: 3 Stars
I seem to be in the minority here..."Portrait of Jennie" didn't inspire me, particularly. I thought that Ethel Barrymore was wonderful in her smallish role...otherwise, I just didn't care for the film. It seemed overdone, and the music grated on my nerves after a while - it never let up for a moment. Joseph Cotten and Jennifer Jones have done far better work in other films. Perhaps I just don't care for this genre of film...I'll watch it again and give it a fair chance.Movie Review: Lovely, haunting story, marred by an unrealistic Jennifer Jones
Summary: 2 Stars
I remember reading this story in junior high school - it's a wonderful, haunting tale of the love between a struggling artist and a mysterious girl who ages in fast forward.
This was the first time I had ever seen the movie, and right off the bat, I was bothered by Jennifer Jones's appearance. Jones's features immediately struck me as those of someone who had recently had plastic surgery. I've seen enough of these to know the subtle signs.
For this fantasy storyline to work, one has to accept Jennifer Jones as a sweet, innocent young girl who grows up into a twenty something woman. And Jones's plastic appearance immediately put the kibosh on any possibility of being believable as sweet and innocent
At the time that this movie was made (filmed at various times from 1947 to 1948), Jennifer Jones was already 28-29 years old. That's the age at which some fair skinned people start having the beginnings of wrinkles and sagging skin. No doubt she needed some work to make her face as smooth as a young teenager again. Unfortunately, whoever did her surgery didn't quite get it right (there are better plastic surgeons these days).
The multitude of closeup shots in this movie only emphasize the dissonance in the appearance of Jones's face. The skin on her cheeks and forehead are taught as a drum, and her cheekbones are emphasized while the cheeks are hollowed out. In some closeup shots, there are still a few wrinkles in her eyelids, while in other shots the underside of her jaw bulges and sags slightly. These are areas that a modern surgeon could have taken care of better.
The biggest problem in her appearance is that her mouth is widened out unnaturally by this selective (and somewhat overdone) pulling of skin. That's because the basic facelift involves pulling the skin from the side, and trimming off the excess in an incision right in front of the ears. Do this to yourself in front of a mirror and you will see the effect - the cheeks get tightened and hollowed out, the cheekbones emphasized, and the mouth is widened laterally by this skin pulling.
I couldn't help but focus on Jennifer Jones's odd looking facelift appearance as I watched this movie. It sure ruined it.
Ugh.....
Movie Review: Portrait of Jennie
Summary: 2 Stars
This movie had a big impact on me when I was a kid, enough so that I remembered it and sought it out all these years later. At the time, I'm sure I loved the mystery and the time travel aspect of the love story. Watching it again, I felt the story of the struggling artist and his friends really held up (in spite of the clumsy B movie intro), and I liked the idea of the romance being the fuel that inspired his best work. The time travel device worked, too, I thought, as a metaphor for the power of art to bring the past alive. (Many of the scenes are consciously framed as though they themselves are paintings.) The movie has a deep reverence for the artistic calling that we don't see much any more. And it's dated in many other respects. Viewing this many years later, the ending seems pointlessly hokey and tragic (just go to the lighthouse for God's sake!). Even if you buy into the soul mates trascending time in death point the movie jams down your throat so hard in the end, it seems idiotic not to at least make a small effort to stay together in life. Still, I'm glad to see the movie again and am happy to include it as a part of my movie library.