PHOTO COURTESY A24

Unfortunately, the “Directed by Sofia Coppola” credit in front of “Priscilla” is not the one that carries the most influence over this project.

The vital line, rather, is “Executive Producer Priscilla Presley.”

Presley, former wife of the King of Rock and Roll and later the heir to his legacy and estate, is an icon of culture well worth biographical treatment. With her having oversight over this project, though, it can’t be played any way other than safe: Gentle, respectful, distant and (most importantly) uncritical.

“Priscilla” follows its title character from the day she meets Elvis, on a German military base, through the day she leaves him. It’s a story that swings between idleness and frustration; Presley is disaffected and forlorn when her beau is not around, then usually frustrated with him when he is.

Coppola, the director of some very good films including “Lost in Translation,” “Marie Antoinette” and “The Beguiled,” offers little of her stylistic ability to this project; her hand is evident, but perhaps misguided. It seems to be her intention to accentuate Presley’s loneliness and boredom; those efforts are successful but make for a dull viewing experience.

It doesn’t help that both characters are played as somewhat vapid ciphers. Cailee Spaney plays Presley as a lovestruck teen from beginning to end, gaining a bit of agency only in time to wrap up the proceedings. Jacob Elordi’s Elvis, while charismatic, is neither the tempest of chaos portrayed in Baz Luhrmann’s recent biopic nor the media creation often presented; he’s just sort of a dumb, good-looking rock star.

Fatally, “Priscilla” pays very little attention to the fact that Elvis — then already a massive star, and an adult in his mid-20s — began wooing Priscilla when she was a girl of 14. Cultural norms may have changed in the past century but not enough to excuse such an egregious fact. It is one, undoubtedly, that Elvis fans would prefer to forget; the right move, then, would have been not to make this movie. So too are drugs and violence introduced into the film only to drift away on the breeze. 

Perhaps free of the subject’s influence, Coppola might have made a film that was forthright about these issues; sadly, that film doesn’t exist. What we’re left with is mostly dull.

My Rating: 3/10

“Priscilla” is now playing in theaters.