I wasn't too sure that I had much to add to the many thoughtful and very exacting reviews of Portrait of Jennie that are already posted. Portrait of Jennie and the Ghost and Mrs. Muir are similar and are both among my very favorite movies. That said, there are plot holes and perhaps lapses in the internal logic of Portrait of Jennie that to me at least seem to be less of an issue in the Ghost and Mr. Muir. Even so, Portrait of Jennie transcends those flaws and becomes something like a dream but it is some one else's dream. I first saw this movie as a young girl, younger than Jennie was when she first appears. I've watched it many times since and every time it was a different movie because I was different dreamer. At twenty, at thirty, at forty and then at fifty, I was different and I saw a different Jennie and a different Portrait of Jennie presented. Twenty year old viewers in 2008 are no doubt experiencing a different movie than I did thirty years ago and will see a different movie thirty years from now than the one I watched last night. For a film that plays with time, it succeeds more than any other that I have ever seen. Spinney may not be Jennie or an echo of Jennie as some viewers have suggested but she is now, finally,a reflection of me watching this dream. This is a film that has enriched my life and for that I am grateful.
Review of Portrait of Jennie
