Elvis was the King of Rock ‘n Roll. As such, he was the closest thing America has ever had to royalty. By proxy, that would make his wife, Priscilla, a Queen. Millions of girls would’ve killed to be in her shoes. As Sofia Coppola’s poignant and melancholy mood piece shows, those shoes weren’t exactly a pair of ruby slippers.
Priscilla isn’t so much a biopic, but a snapshot of a life. It shows only Priscilla (Cailee Spaeny) from her first meeting with Elvis (Jacob Elordi) till the moment she leaves him. It shows how a (very) young girl can get swept off her feet by the most famous man on the planet. The catch is, she has to be at his beck and call 24/7. She’s gotta stay in Graceland and keep the home fires burning for him while he’s off making movies and shaking his pelvis. She’s got to wear what he says and do her hair just so. Even when this grows tiresome for her, at the end of the day, she’s still dating Elvis freakin’ Presley.
Once they are married, she finds being Elvis’s wife has its ups and downs. Just like every relationship, I suppose. Except when you’re married to the King, those ups and downs were often extreme and volatile.
There’s still genuine love and affection between the two. His overreliance on pills to keep him going eventually transfers over to her too. Snippets of his hot temper come out and his erratic behavior and womanizing threatens to derail the relationship. Still, she stands by her man because at the end of the day she’s married to Elvis freakin’ Presley.
The film is a fascinating look at when enough is finally enough in a relationship. Their romance is a lot like any long-distance relationship. Resentment, unfulfilled longing, and boredom cause the two to further drift apart. Of course, when you add fame and drugs to the mix, it tends to put a magnifying glass over every bump in the road the couple has. Naturally, the road this couple is on is a lot more surreal since we’re talking about Elvis freakin’ Presley here.
Priscilla might be the first love story where the main character’s suitor buys her an expensive wardrobe AND a handgun to match each dress.
Spaeny is excellent as Priscilla. Coppola gives her lots of closeups of her to show that Priscilla is putting up a pleasant front for Elvis, the Memphis Mafia, and the press, but her eyes suggest deep sadness and loneliness. Elordi is good as the King. He dials down the persona we are accustomed to, but he captures Elvis’s boyish fidgetiness (especially in the early scenes) rather well. He doesn’t quite show off the King’s larger than life personality during his Vegas era, but I think that helps to ground the film as it’s essentially a two-character relationship drama.
Much has been made of the lack of Elvis music in the picture. Even as a die-hard Elvis fan, I can’t say I really missed his music, mostly because it would’ve taken away from Priscilla’s story. Consider the final scene of Priscilla walking away from Graceland. If you put “Suspicious Minds” on the soundtrack instead of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You”, it stops being a scene about Priscilla and becomes a scene about Elvis, even if he isn’t even present. This scene (one of the best in the film) deftly shows Priscilla has left the building.
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