An Elvis film with none of his songs? BRIAN VINER reviews Priscilla, a love story that hits all the wrong notes

Priscilla

Judgement:

Elvis Presley fell for Priscilla Beaulieu when he was 24 and she was only 14. Even taking into account different eras and different sensibilities, it would be hard to tell that story without it coming across as irredeemably creepy.

Sofia Coppola’s biographical drama Priscilla tries to do just that, but fails.

Unfortunately, one of the other failures is the music. The film is based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir Elvis And Me, who is also one of the executive producers, so Coppola was understandably totally shocked when Presley’s estate denied her the rights to perform his songs.

Instead, her movie begins with Baby, I Love You by The Ramones, and ends with Dolly Parton singing I Will Always Love You. They’re great, but they’re not Elvis. The only time we get any sense of his mesmerizing charisma as an artist is when Jacob Elordi, well cast as Elvis, does a Jerry Lee Lewis impression, hammers the piano and yells Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On.

Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 biopic Elvis, not plagued by such issues, is a lot better.

However, that didn’t stop Priscilla from getting a smashing reception last night at the Venice Film Festival, where the film had its world premiere. And it certainly tells Presley’s familiar story from a fresh perspective, that of his young bride, beautifully played by Cailee Spaeny. It begins in 1959 in West Germany, where Elvis, like Priscilla’s stepfather, is stationed with the US Army.

Priscilla is spotted by one of Elvis’ acolytes drinking Coke at a counter and is invited to a party at Presley’s house. That may be perfectly harmless, but to suspicious minds it looks starkly like the sexual acquisition of a minor. Later, Elvis asks her a rhetorical question, “Where have you been all your life?” Only in the audience does the obvious, non-rhetorical response arise: that she hasn’t lived nearly half the time. Undaunted by her extremely young years, Elvis the King, though temporarily dethroned while serving in the army, soon invites her upstairs and weeps over his homesickness and his mother’s recent death. “Ah, I wish my mother could have met you,” he whispers.

And again we think: why? All she did was smile sweetly. Yet her young heart is touched, and soon the rest of her too. Yet, as both the film and Priscilla’s memoir relate, Elvis abstains from sex until they marry seven years later.

Even when she is old enough, he tells her that her virginity is “sacred” to him. We are perhaps meant to admire his gentle restraint. But it just makes him seem weird and controlling.

Age difference: Elvis Presley fell for Priscilla Beaulieu when he was 24 and she was only 14

Once Priscilla is installed in Graceland, back in Memphis, his possessive control freakery gets worse. She is showered with gifts – a poodle, a car, a gun – but she is told what she can and cannot wear. At her parents’ insistence, she attends high school, but is not allowed to bring friends home. And Elvis’s influence on her is ominous in other ways too: he loads her with amphetamines to keep her awake at school.

This all sounds interesting enough, but it unfolds in a curiously anodyne way. For large parts of the film, the screenplay might as well have read, “Elvis blows his top, Priscilla is hurt, Elvis says ‘sorry, honey.’ To repeat.’ Still, there are some brow-raising episodes that are clearly fact-based, like when she gets a matching gun for every dress. At this point, common sense has left the building.

Nevertheless, we go on and on, going through this cycle where he is strange and she is long-suffering. They take LSD; he becomes obsessed with the teachings of a yogi; their daughter Lisa Marie is born; he is having an affair with his Viva Las Vegas co-star Ann-Margret; eventually Priscilla leaves him.

Coppola has said that telling this story was partly inspired by her own experience of growing up with a famous, rather overbearing father figure (her father is director Francis Ford Coppola).

That is understandable, but it makes the result all the more disappointing. She’s a fine filmmaker, but this isn’t a good movie – and it makes the viewer think that even if he couldn’t resist falling in love with Priscilla, this rocker belonged in a prison.

• The UK release date is January 1, 2024.