Jackie

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.

OK, yes, Natalie Portman gives a good performance as Jackie Kennedy. But everything else in this long, boring film is badly done. The worst two examples are the actors playing JFK and RFK. The actor playing JFK is way too short for the role, has his voice dubbed by actual JFK audio footage, and prances around like a gay munchkin. Peter Sarsgaard is a good actor, but make no effort at all to look or sound like RFK. It's as if you're watching a version of history with pod people taking over the roles of these famous men.

From the first awful note, the music of Mica Levi is intrusive, jarring, and totally wrong for this type of film. It even drowns out dialog it's so loud. Aside from the clip of Richard Burton singing "Camelot," the film seems to exist in a time warp, with zero cultural references allowed to intrude other than old news footage.

We are told Jackie is being interviewed in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, but the house and surrounding grounds look nothing like the famous Kennedy compound or Cape Cod. Even footage filmed in Washington, DC looks oddly phony since the city has changed so much since 1963.

The scenes where Jackie spars intellectually with the journalist (Sarsgaard as Theodore H. White, but they never use his name) and the priest (John Hurt) are so foolish they almost seem like comedy skits. There's also a long and needless scene with Richard E. Grant as a designer working with Jackie as she obsesses over interior decoration for the White House.

During the long screen time devoted to recreating Jackie's famous televised tour of the White House in 1961, she talks about the stage that was built in the music room when Pablo Casals played there, but the following scene shows him seated and playing not on a stage.

Other historical characters from the Johnsons to Jack Valenti are glimpsed as being generally unfriendly and outrightly evil, but nothing is developed. It's as if all this history is just a vague backdrop for Jackie to emote in front of. Perhaps it's an accurate comment about a woman who is so self-obsessed, her hours after the assassination are spent worrying about what will become of her and where she will live.

And that's the main issue here. We're shown a Jackie who is constantly self-obsessed rather than self-assured. She's a heroine for the selfie generation rather than a real and accurate product of her time.

If you ever doubted the credibility of Natalie Portman as a performer, watch 'Jackie' right away & dump your thoughts away. In this stunning biopic, where Portman flexes her acting muscles as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, proves to be a testament of her incredible talent. Its a film driven by a lead performance, that is anchored by sheer power.

'Jackie' Synopsis: Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy fights through grief and trauma to regain her faith, console her children, and define her husband's historic legacy.

Director Pablo Larraín brings a disturbing true-story on celluloid, that covers theme of love, loss & power. We watch Jackie struggle with the surroundings around her, following the assassination of her President Husband. And I must tell you, the journey has been told with gut-wrenching bleakness. The narrative is no-holds-barred & what we see throughout the film, is a women in deep pain.

Noah Oppenheim's Screenplay is top-notch. Its arresting as well as its disturbing. Pablo Larraín's Direction is fantastic. He has handled this biographical-drama with precision. Cinematography is brilliant. Editing is razor-crisp, keeping the narrative tight in its 99-minutes running-time. Art & Costume Design are perfect. Mica Levi's Score is super.

Performance-Wise: As mentioned right from my summary, Portman is Mesmerizing. Its a tour-de-force performance, that ranks amongst the best of 2016. Of the supporting cast, Peter Sarsgaard as Robert F. Kennedy & Greta Gerwig as Nancy Tuckerman, are first-rate, yet again. And John Hurt as Father Richard McSorley, is remarkable in a cameo. Others lend good support.

On the whole, 'Jackie' is definitely a must see. It finds one of the most talented actresses of our times, at her finest hour. Go watch!

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.

The Kennedy assassination was one of the defining moments of history, probably the most internationally shocking one until 9/11. Pablo Larraín's "Jackie" focuses on the widowed Jackie Kennedy during the few days after the assassination, as she tries to cement her late husband's legacy. I wasn't alive then, so I don't know what Jackie's voice sounded like, but Natalie Portman affects a breathy mid-Atlantic accent to play the stylish first lady. Quite an impressive performance.

We could make the argument that JFK didn't have much of a positive legacy, given his poor record on civil rights (upon which Johnson sought to improve) and an undeclared war on Cuba. Even so, the era was seen as the culmination of the possible. I recommend the movie.

Larraín also directed 2012's "No", about the TV campaign that led to Augusto Pinochet's defeat in the 1988 election.