Jackie

Pablo Larraín's "Jackie" covers the week following the JFK assassination in 1963 and is based on an unpublished interview of Jacqueline Kennedy (Natalie Portman) by Life Magazine. Finally released upon her death, the notes were blended with several other interviews to create this screenplay by Noah Oppenheim. For anyone interested in understanding the widespread panic and "what-now" of the time, you'll appreciate this film.

The scene ideas are painfully simple, though highly effective. From sharing the impossible news with her kids, to deciding when/how to move out, to asking million-dollar questions of the priest ("What kind of God takes a father away from his two little children?"), the movie includes moments we all know must have happened to Jackie but were buried under the public hysteria around the event itself. As intoned by the funeral planner, "The world's gone mad."

Jackie makes small talk in the hearse with Bobby Kennedy while her dead husband (his dead brother... America's dead president) lies in the hulking casket between them, causing our focus to oscillate between the weight of what we hear and what we see. Later, as she staggers through the White House at the end of the longest day of her life - still donning her blood-soaked pink dress that would soon find a permanent home in infamy - Jackie personifies crippling isolation in body and in mind. The non sequiturs that tumble out during these dreadful sequences ("How will we afford to put the kids through school now? Maybe we can sell some of the furniture?") are as heartfelt as they are ludicrous. No matter where she is or what she's doing, Jackie reacts like any commoner would. She just happens to be doing so as the First Lady.

The film works because Portman is the most believable Jackie O ever put on screen. From the outset, she is in total control of her confusion, fear, helplessness, exasperation, guilt, long-held duties as a mother, brand-new duties as a *father, alongside her esoteric responsibilities to the nation. Portman puts on an acting clinic by conveying her predicament through nuance. We learn as much about Jackie's state of mind from what she doesn't say as from what she does, because no matter how carefully she speaks or how badly she wishes to be understood, it becomes clear that no words could ever meet the moment.

Characters often stare pleadingly into the camera's eyebrow, as if searching for an escape hatch from the audience. The score is populated by discordant whole notes that produce similar unease. Even the photography is at once stunning and unsettling, given the underlying darkness that has eclipsed the light of society. In the end, we feel the world on edge, suspended in time, waiting for normal life to resume. This film concerns the looking back required before it is possible for Jackie Kennedy (or for any of us) to make sense of the loss and start again. The same looking back required "to let them see what they've done."

As the film is titled 'Jackie' you expect to learn more about her through the film, it should have been called 'JFK's widow one week following his assassination'. This is a woman who was powerful and had a background, a life, buried two babies. All we get from this film is a portrayal of a grieving, often selfish and self absorbed woman who smokes and drinks too much. Who wouldn't fall to that after something as traumatic? The film is flat and bland, it gives us no indication of the type of woman she was, her role in white house (aside from her expensive renovations and insistence on a huge funeral for her husband) We see nothing of her personal achievements. Natalie Portman and the excellent cast's acting skills are the only interesting thing to watch. Disappointing and does 'Jackie O' no justice at all.

As someone who loves history, I thoroughly enjoyed Jackie. For the most part, the facts were historically accurate as far as I am aware. I also really liked the score, I thought it was very refreshing and simply different. The film was slow-paced but I find that's to be expected with historical films. I liked that the cinematography was simple to give a real sense of the era, and the costume design was great. I also liked the ending.

Essentially this is a film where I liked everything, but didn't love much. The only things that I absolutely loved was Natalie Portman's acting as Jackie Kennedy. She really exuded her character and became Jackie Kennedy. it was great! The other thing I loved was John Hurt as the priest which was a lovely surprise.

Overall, this was a simple film but it wasn't daring. It didn't risk take like other films would and therefore in that regard may be a bore for some.

I'm surprised to see so many bad reviews of this film on IMDb. I would be interested to know how many of them came from people who are too young to remember the Kennedy assassination or much about Mrs. Kennedy.

Okay, several people were angry that John-John in the movie didn't salute the casket.

One review referred to the story as "horrible and morbid." Guess what - it is.

One review said Jackie was a "housewife." I won't dignify that with a response.

Natalie Portman was criticized for doing a "cringe-worthy" imitation. Her voice and accent were found hilarious.

And it was called "boring" over and over again.

I understand that to each his own, and I respect that. I'm just surprised.

I first of all did not find this film at all boring. I found it emotional, compelling, and interesting - and despite what someone said here, I did find out things I never knew.

I thought Natalie Portman did a brilliant job and, while the role didn't offer as much as Viola Davis' did in Fences, I would not have been upset to see her win another Oscar. There was nothing wrong with her accent, that's how Mrs. Kennedy talked. If you don't believe me, go to youtube and listen to the tapes.

The film focused on Jackie after the assassination, but it was shown, as were earlier times, such as her televised tour of the White House. I thought the film mixed with the actual footage was excellent.

The clothes were perfection. Like others, I did not care for the music and what I really did not care for was the music at the end.

The rest of the cast did an admirable job - John Hurt, Greta Gerwig, and Billy Crudup. I was disappointed in Peter Sarsgaard, but I think he was trying to convey Bobby's shock and grief. He's a good actor normally but not very successful here.

I found this a poignant film and a stunning portrait of Jackie Kennedy and what she suffered as a result of the assassination.

I mostly fell for this exploration of grief, grace and mythmaking. Even when it was a bit too on the nose (the faults mostly lie in the wraparound story). It's concerned with how someone copes in the spotlight, how someone can make a legacy from the idea of a thing, how a person is more important than their legend but also how their legend shapes how that person is forever perceived.

It's telling in the universe of the film that Jackie herself is first obsessed with redesigning the White House in what is ostensibly a superficial act of decorating, but then is revealed to be, in reality, attempting to reflect more than the legends of past presidents but also the men who shaped them. A reminder that all legends start with a simple human being doing things only a person can do. A grandiloquent gesture of political humanity for a house full of ghosts.

There's a lot else to like here. Natalie Portman's performance does indeed capture Jackie Kennedy's persona, but also the legend of her and the real woman behind it all. Watching the real White House tour video on YouTube showed me how accurate Portman's breathy accent and meticulous demeanor really were. Beautifully composed, with notes of elegance and grotesqueness in equal measure. And a wonderful, tragic, near other-worldly score by Mica Levi.