GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

turnbull50 One of my favourite films of the 1940's I love the way Jennifer Jones plays herself from being a schoolgirl to an adult women. The acting is excellent. The ending is stunning with the green tint and technicolor portrait at the end.

Kieran Wright Sometimes one happens upon a film which one wouldn't have even known about unless it is found by accident. This, for me, is one of those films and I couldn't be happier to have found it. Having done a little research on the actor Joseph Cotten, he is on the record as stating that this is the favourite of all the films he starred in. With some choice actors in support in the form of Jennifer Jones, Ethel Barrymore - of the famous Barrymore acting clan - Lilian Gish and Cecil Kellaway, everyone plays their parts beautifully. As for Cotten, he has never been in finer form, as his usual melancholy charm is perfectly suited to this film. In essence, the plot revolves around a struggling artist who is yet to find his niche and, indeed, his muse. That muse turns up in the form of Jennie, played beautifully by Jennifer Jones. This film is notable for the fact that it is mostly in monochrome i.e. black and white, but the final reel uses a green tint and sepia. In terms of the direction, it is wonderful and some effective but subtle special effects - for which it bagged an Oscar - are put to very good use. Probably one of the greatest ever love stories committed to film and I'm so glad to have seen it.

lasttimeisaw A destitute artist meets his muse, but is she whether a time-traveler from the past, a ghost image deceased long ago, or simply his imaginary fair tale? PORTRAIT OF JENNIE is a romantic fantasy (adapted from Robert Nathan's novel) from the less acclaimed Germany-born director William Dieterle, starring Dieterle's longtime troupers Cotten and Jones. It's an ambivalent mystique, the film candidly steers clear of rendering elucidation of Jennie (Jones), we viewers gain our vicarious affections towards her through Eben's (Cotten) blind commitment and crazed conviction. Jones comes off wonderfully through the transition from a teenage schoolgirl to a fair lady, the voice transformation is vividly convincing, also thanks to the nocturnal environment and clever lightning. During her episodic appearances in signposting Eben's track of life, Jones incarnates herself as a genuinely cordial ingénue, the inspiration to light up Eden's pedestrian lot, while maintaining a shade of intended coyness about her whimsical conducts to push the storyline ride on its well-premeditated trajectory (as we are multiply and passively persuaded that the ominous lighthouse will be the elephant-in-the-room concerning Jennie's whereabout eventually), with Cotten endearingly plays along, quite an aberrant and wayward scheme entirely contingent on viewers' grades of naivety, perhaps that's why it hasn't interfaced with modern audiences too well. Nevertheless, one can rejoice in tons of merits from this film, a poignant catharsis during a striking tidal wave, impressive special effects at its time (under the backing of green tint technique), the singular textured field on a painting canvas when introducing different chapters is a rare endeavor, and well in tune with its dainty artistry. Great chemistry between Cotten and Jones, the ultimate romance Hollywood never ceases to propagandize; the ever-refined Barrymore is a wonderful delight whenever she appears, brings fine touch to the flimsy plot with Kellaway and Wayne, plus a riddle-breaker supporting role from Lillian Gish, (admittedly it is my very first Gish film, and beckons for a welcome start) and a cameo near the end with a young Nancy Reagan (in the only Technicolor shot). PORTRAIT OF JENNIE is a charming, feel good picture one can easily resort to repeated viewings, and preferably in a renovated BluRay platform where it truly deserves to display.

justincward 'Portrait of Jennie' lays its cards on the table from the outset, explicitly telling us against a background of swirling clouds (you know the sort of thing) how the movie is going to deal with cosmic spiritual issues. So you can't say you haven't been warned that you're in for Hollywood hokum at its hooiest.Eben Adams (Joseph Cotten) is a struggling painter who meets a turn-of-the-19th-century ghost in Central Park, NY, whose love inspires him to become the great painter he feels he is destined to be. Over the course of the film, Jennie Appleton (Jennifer Jones) convincingly ages from young girl to convent-school alumnus, and the (somewhat cheesy) portrait that Adams paints of her is acclaimed as a work of genius.In the end, Adams doggedly follows Jennie to Land's End lighthouse on the brink of a tidal wave, where she is washed away except that her love survives, etc. etc. This kind of spoils the story - it would have been better if Adams himself had died, and the portrait had been his one-off work of genius, no-one knowing why he decided to take a dinghy out in a sea storm. No mention is made of how he survived on $25 for six months, but it doesn't matter.But the film pulls out all the stops, uncompromisingly sticking to its premise, and in spite of its pretensions you have to acknowledge its consistency in being a complete fantasy in the same way as a contemporary Disney feature. Film noir it ain't, but Ethel Barrymore does a good turn as a self-confessed old maid who takes the somewhat mature Joseph Cotten under her wing. Later in the film we get a few Technicolor switches which add nothing, but must have been the equivalent of state-of-the-art CGI at the time. Modern CGI users, take note.'Portrait of Jennie' is ridiculous and sentimental, but completely divorced from reality in the same way as today's 'Knowing', or 'Midnight in Paris'. On that level, it works. Eben Adams should have died, though, because the hero has to make the biggest sacrifice. He'd already lost contact with Jennie, so her 'death' had no resonance. His death would have been the price of his achieving great art. As it is he gets off lightly.