Rating: 
Summary: Hollywood fantasy at it's best!
Review: I will always remember the first time I saw this film. It haunted me for days and I desperately wanted to see it again. This was before the days of video, however, and I had a long wait. I saw it again several years ago, and today I own a copy which I watch every year during the holidays. I have shared it with many friends and relatives, and they have been as enchanted as I was with it. It is a beautiful film and one that is capable of totally taking you away into another world. Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: Lovely movie, poor DVD transfer
Review: I've loved this movie for over 30 years, it's one of my top romantic favorites, and I have both the VHS and the DVD. I must say I was very disappointed in this DVD print. The print I have on the VHS tape is vastly superior to the DVD. My advice is to keep or purchase the VHS tape instead. This DVD print has lines, little artifacts running through scenes, and poor color. Either that, or wait till it is run on Turner Classic Movies to see it in its perfect glory....their print is PERFECT.
Rating: 
Summary: David O. Selznick's Valentine to His Wife.
Review: In many ways, this movie borders on the ludicrous. There's a prelude of swirling images that mixes quotes from Euripides with a narrator solemnly intoning a grab-bag of snippets from modern physics to ancient superstitions. There are even surprising technical glitches--such as unsynced dialogue, mismatched shots and even footage lifted from Selznick's production of Hitchcock's "Spellbound"--that are almost unheard of in a high-quality production. No matter, I'd still rank this as one of my all-time favorite films...almost a guilty pleasure. The whole enterprise is informed with a wonderful sense of mystery. The cinematography of New York is breathtaking. Jennifer Jones is gorgeous and amazingly convincing--even when she's done up as a little girl in frocks and braids. Joseph Cotten is suitably morose and believably smitten as "Jennie" turns into a ravishing beauty. There's a lovely employment of musical themes from Debussy's "La Mer" within Dimitri Tiomkin's original score. In sum, it's a unique visual and aural tone poem that captures the otherworldy longing between Jennie and Eben. I defy anyone to be unmoved when Eben's color oil painting of Jennie is revealed as the music swells to its finale. It's really a love letter from Selznick to wife Jennifer Jones rendered in celluloid.
Rating:
Summary: Sweeping and Tender
Review: Joseph Cotten delivers one of his finest performances as Eben Adams a down and out artist in New York. Adams meets Jennie( Jones) in the park as a little girl wistfully playing. He is attracted to her in a most macabre way. Throughout the film at each encounter, Jennie seems to grow up before Cotten,s eyes. FInally she is a grown woman and will act as an inspiration to Eben,s artistry. The more he learns about her, seemingly the less he knows. The haunting finale will make you want to see the film again. Directed by the sure hand of William Dieterle. In the end, finally as a catharsis for Eben, we are able to see his portrait in full blown color....A Portrait of Jennie!!
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful film
Review: Joseph Cotten stars as a struggling artist trying to find the passion and inspiration to bring his art to life. A chance encounter in a park with a young girl named Jennie begins to spark his work, and their infrequent meetings afterwards fuel his creativity and feelings. Oddly, she seems to come from an earlier time and each occasion he meets her, she ages more than the time that has passed. He slowly pieces together the mystery of who she really is. Cotten gives one of his best performances in this ethereal story. He's very convincing as the artist whose muse and love may very well be some sort of ghost. Jennifer Jones stars as the title character, and despite being given some heavy-handed dialogue, makes the character of Jennie quite believable at all stages of her life. The supporting cast is excellent, with particular praise going to a well cast Ethel Barrymore as the gallery owner who takes Cotten under her wing. She brings a weary, sad quality that matches the film perfectly. The photography of the film is remarkable, having the quality of a painting throughout, with the last ten minutes very effectively filmed in Technicolor. The music also adds the other-worldly quality that permeates the movie. The opening "lecture" of the film, however, is awkwardly done, hurt by some of the overbaked writing that occasionally plagues the dialogue. But the rest of the film succeeds admirably, creating a mood and romantic feeling that sustains the unusual story. It's unlike any other film you will see from that era.
Rating:
Summary: A Painting Come To Life
Review: Joseph Cotten stars as a struggling artist trying to find the passion and inspiration to bring his art to life. A chance encounter in a park with a young girl named Jennie begins to spark his work, and their infrequent meetings afterwards fuel his creativity and feelings. Oddly, she seems to come from an earlier time and each occasion he meets her, she ages more than the time that has passed. He slowly pieces together the mystery of who she really is. Cotten gives one of his best performances in this ethereal story. He's very convincing as the artist whose muse and love may very well be some sort of ghost. Jennifer Jones stars as the title character, and despite being given some heavy-handed dialogue, makes the character of Jennie quite believable at all stages of her life. The supporting cast is excellent, with particular praise going to a well cast Ethel Barrymore as the gallery owner who takes Cotten under her wing. She brings a weary, sad quality that matches the film perfectly. The photography of the film is remarkable, having the quality of a painting throughout, with the last ten minutes very effectively filmed in Technicolor. The music also adds the other-worldly quality that permeates the movie. The opening "lecture" of the film, however, is awkwardly done, hurt by some of the overbaked writing that occasionally plagues the dialogue. But the rest of the film succeeds admirably, creating a mood and romantic feeling that sustains the unusual story. It's unlike any other film you will see from that era.
Rating:
Summary: Love beyond reason!
Review: Like "Peter Ibbetson" (the sound film) or "Wuthering Heights" (the novel), "Portrait of Jeannie" is a perfect example of love "fou" story. Love "fou" is a kind of surralistic tale of passion beyond reason and reality. That is the point to understand so passionate film. This magnificent movie is a triumph for producer David O. Selznick and Jennifer Jones in the role of Jeannie. Great performances by Joseph Cotten and Ethel Barrymore.
Rating:
Summary: A Timeless Classic of a Film
Review: My mother would say this film is as old as the hills, however I wouldn't go that far though it is a golden oldie as it was bought out in 1948, only three years after the end of World War II. However it has aged well and is still very watchable even after all this time. It is a ghost story, a drama, a romance and a mystery all rolled into one neat black and white package. The plot revolves around a young girl, called Jennie Appleton, the beautiful Jenny Jones, who meets up with a young (but very poor) and aspiring artist when she is just a child. Eben Adams, the artist, played well by the actor Joseph Cotton is smitten by this confident and fragile little girl who tells him she will grow up quickly so they can be together one day. Of course he doesn't believe her because she is just a child, but what he doesn't know is that Jennie is a ghost, and she has fallen in love with him. What follows is a tender love story about loss, love and the redemption of the human soul. Jennie becomes Eben's muse and his future paintings are suddenly in great demand. However Eben is quickly finding out that there is more to Jennie than meets the eye, and eventually he has to acknowledge that even though he can hold her in his arms and kiss her beautiful face, Jennie is a ghost and that she is destined to be lost to him very soon by the same quirk of supernatural fate that brought her to him in the first place. Eben, however is desperate to save Jennie and so he sets out to the island where she so tragically drowned in a violent storm so many years ago and it is here he learns that you cannot always have what you want, and that if you love someone you have to let them go even though it breaks your heart. A haunting sound track accompanies this delightful tearjerker of a film, and the cast is exemplary from the secret rebel Gus O'Toole (David Wayne) who hires Eben to paint scenes from Irish history on his Tavern walls to Miss Spinney (Ethel Barrymore at her best) who buys one Eben's paintings and becomes first his friend and then his agent. There's even a very young Brian Keith in a minor role as an ice-skater, though if you blink too quickly you will miss his scene! Portrait of Jennie is a timeless classic of a film. It is as good as Now Voyager and Casablanca. Make sure you invest in a HUGE box of Kleenex because even if you don't bawl your eyes out, (for those of a tough and macho disposition) you'll be dabbing your eyes now and then!
Rating:
Summary: Strange but irresistably fascinating love story.
Review: Portrait of Jennie is a strange time-warp love story which may be dismissed by some modern viewers as silly. Yet to me it is almost irresistably fascinating. Even though I regularly watch it on DVD, if I come upon it on TV anywhere in the story I usually am hooked and stay with it to the end, which I almost invariably find quite moving. On the other hand, I suspect that some modern viewers might turn this strange movie off after only a few minutes, or dislike the ending if they stayed with it that far. This wonderful movie is Hollywood's Golden Age at its romantic best and may not please some modern tastes. Therefore, I can't assure you that you'll like this movie because you may not, particularly if you're not a romantic. I can tell you, though, that many of us count this haunting romantic fantasy among our favorite films and, if you see it, you may do so too. I strongly suggest that you give it a try. By the way, Jennifer Jones is outstanding -- and especially beautiful -- as Jenny.
Rating:
Summary: Strange but intriguing romantic fantasy.
Review: Portrait of Jennie is a strange time-warp movie that could quite easily be dismissed as silly. Yet to me it is almost irresistably fascinating. If I come upon it on TV anywhere in the story I usually am hooked and stay with it to the end -- which I almost invariably find quite moving. On the other hand, I suspect that many people would turn this strange movie off after only a few minutes, or dislike the ending if they stayed with it that far. I can't tell you that you'll like this movie because you may not. I can tell you that some of us count this haunting romantic fantasy among our favorite films.
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