Priscilla – A Shallow Character Study That Takes On Too Much

When it comes to Elvis films, last year’s Oscar-nominated Elvis is probably still fresh in most audiences’ memories. Creating a difficult hurdle to overcome, Priscilla offers brings something different to the table, an Elvis-adjacent story that focuses on his titular longtime wife. Based on her 1985 biography “Elvis and Me,” which she wrote with Sandra Harmon, the film is a beautiful fever dream that depicts her complicated relationship with Elvis in a different light that may not necessarily go down well with all Elvis traditionalists. However, the story here is not about him and that’s a detail that not everyone will be willing to accept. Viewing it from outside that lens, this character study lacks enough depth, seemingly suffering from balancing having to do right for the characters and telling a certain story over a specific period of time. In the end, the script did not go far enough in delivering that depth, instead employing a nuanced approach that won’t work for everyone. Most of the heavy lifting is tasked to its two leads, Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi as Priscilla and Elvis Presley. Though each shine, better individually than together, Spaeny does a decent job as the heart of the film but the other often feels more like an impersonation of Elvis than an actual performance.

As mentioned, Priscilla chronicles the complicated relationship between Priscilla (Spaeny) and Elvis Presley (Elordi) through the eyes of the former. As a teenager, Priscilla met an already-established Elvis at a party and from there, the rest was essentially history. Immediately infatuated with one another in spite of the age difference between the two, they kept in touch over the years. With time, that connection remained and even grew stronger. There was a pull that drew them to one another so they were inevitable. Moving to Graceland to be with him, Priscilla found herself as an outsider in the middle of Elvis’ world. Quickly acclimating to his world, she loved him so much that she was willing to go on that ride. Still very young and immature in the midst of living away from home for the first time, little did she know what that would entail both physically and emotionally. At the peak of stardom, Priscilla’s perspective laid on the other end of that spectrum. Similarly, Elvis was a polar opposite person than his superstar persona. Letting himself be vulnerable around her, he was a friend whom she could confide in.

As Elvis’ stardom continued to grow, all that Priscilla could do is helplessly watch from the sidelines as he became increasingly consumed with fame and appeared to live a different life in the public eye. While it pulled him further and further away from her, she couldn’t help but get suspicious as she was left combing through tabloids to decipher between fact and fiction to know what was going on. A woman whose identity whose life was solely defined by her relationship with Elvis, the long stretches of loneliness as he went off to Hollywood meant that she was had to try and live her own life. However, Priscilla first had to figure out what that was. Perpetually stuck in the middle of a losing battle with his celebrity and what that meant, it was only a matter of time until she came to terms with where she truly stood and started to take care of herself. Coming into her own, that journey was not without its ups and downs as camerawork and closeups were used to fill in the gaps within the script and create a feeling of isolation as her dream.

Constructing a strong atmosphere using camerawork, cinematography, and its score, the film was beautiful and somewhat compelling to watch as they did a decent job at setting the tone but it’s just a shame that Priscilla couldn’t quite fill it with enough. Ultimately, it will live or die on Spaeny and Elordi as Priscilla and Elvis and whether or not audiences buy into their relationship. Now, while Spaeny did her best with what she was given, Priscilla frustratingly shallow by overplaying her dependence on Elvis and not leaning enough into its contemplative moments. Supposedly meant to be a supporting character in her story, Elordi’s Elvis was pulled too much into the forefront. As Elvis, he sort of gets the accent and definitely has the look. That being said, the character is also shallow as his performance comes across as more of a vague impersonation. Meanwhile, the almost foot and a half height disparity between Spaeny and Elordi (5’1″ compared to 6’4″) becomes a distraction. If intentional, it is perhaps a little too on the nose.

At the end of the day, Priscilla is destined to be a subjective film that leaves a lot open to interpretation, for better or worse, and while it won’t work for everyone, it has some good elements even if they may not all come together here. While one interpretation, the result is a missed opportunity that arguably takes on too much.

still courtesy of Elevation Pictures

If you liked this, please read our other reviews here and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter or Instagram or like us on Facebook.

Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.