Thursday, January 5, 2017

  JACKIE   3.4*** 
first. If you thought Helen Mirren as THE QUEEN  and Meryl Streep as THE IRON LADY gave great  performances in biopics, know that Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy gives a performance here that's every bit in their league.  She will be nominated for Best Actress.

"Jackie" is a moving portrayal of Jackie Kennedy in the days surrounding JFK's assassination. We see her calm composure in the days before and her struggle to maintain this in the days after  The film is done entirely from the perspective of Jackie herself, and the film jumps around through time in such a way as if we are looking into her mind ourselves.   Considering this is a film driven by the central character of Jackie Kennedy (and her alone), this film required a great central performance, and Natalie Portman gives one. It goes well beyond  the fact that she talks with the same voice and displays the same mannerisms as Jackie Kennedy. Yet even in this horrible, terrifying situation as the wife and First Lady of the slain President, Natalie Portman never resorts to overacting.  

Through all the post assassination political dealings,  her first interview after the assassination, and, most of all, several meetings with a Priest, we learn much about this her as a historical figure. Yet too, Jackie Kennedy is humanized through this film. We learn about her conflicts during the aftermath of the assassination, and despite constantly depicting herself as strong and resilient to the public, we see that she was absolutely confused, lonely, and terrified underneath. She clearly loved her husband and wanted badly to honor him, but she also romanticized him to the point where he was no longer a real human in her mind, but instead a perfect legend, the King Arthur of Camelot . With Bobbie Kennedy in visible shock and unable to strongly support her wishes and with the new President Lyndon Johnson and his aides pushing hard to get in the White House ASAP (even demanding that the Kennedys pack up and get out of the living quarters immediately after the funeral) , that is why Jackie tried so hard often alone to make sure  her husband’s accomplishments and legacy were preserved for history’s sake.

Many moments of the film caught my eye and many others broke my heart. I will always remember the shot of Jackie, in Air Force One shortly after the assassination, cleaning the blood of her husband off of her face, weeping. And what the song "Camelot" meant to her and her husband, as they danced to it in the very last scene of the film. You feel her happiness and then her agony and loss.

This movie may be about a public figure in our recent history but if you strip away the Kennedy myth and name, the movie's beating heart, its very core, is the story of how profound grief feels and how it's handled. It's agony seeming to never end, like a hazy bad dream. “Jackie” perfectly captures every moment of that bad dream.
Clark


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