There are a number of good reasons to see Jackie, the meditative and measured biopic by Chilean director Pablo Larraín, and chief among them is Natalie Portman’s thoughtful and potent lead performance.
This is a slow, moody, and misty picture of lingering close-ups and bottled emotion, with Mica Levi supplying jarring, almost horror-esque orchestral swells throughout. It’s not a popcorn-muncher and it may even prove hard to find — it has a purebred indie pedigree, having been picked up by Fox Searchlight this fall at the Toronto International Film Festival, and around here it’s playing only in the art house cinema — but if you know what you’re getting into, it’s an immersive and meticulous snapshot of the protagonist and well worth your time.
Jackie offers us a different bite of the familiar JFK apple, telling a far narrower story than we’re used to on this topic: One that begins in the moments following the infamous assassination and includes only the early days thereafter.
Narratively, the film tracks a slow, deliberate, and personal interview Jackie gives to an unnamed reporter (Billy Crudup) at home in Hyannisport, and uses this template to flip back and forth between various flashbacks. We glimpse the famed Camelot White House through a TV tour Mrs. Kennedy gave, alongside the near-pandemonium of the early moments in Dallas, the swearing in aboard the plane, and a week of shock, grief, uncertainty, and questions of legacy. (Oh, and funeral arrangements. There’s quite a lot of those, too.)
In these early days Jackie grapples frequently with the surreal: how to tell her children what’s happened; watching people congratulate Johnson after he takes the oath of office; packing boxes; and the stark realization that she, in fact, now has no real home.
Natalie Portman bit off quite a lot, here. It’s hard enough to play an actual person, but to fill in the gaps on such a well-known public figure during what was a particularly trying and public time can’t be easy.
She nails it. From the hushed coo of her mid-Atlantic accent to her grace, movement, and smile, Portman does a fantastic job capturing Jacqueline Kennedy. And this physical double-goer is animated with considerable skill, layering trauma, pain, doubt, panic, and solemn poise in an emotional millefeuille.
Don’t go in expecting a treatise on the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Cold War, the Johnson/MacNamara-driven Vietnam escalation, or any type of grassy knoll whodunit — none of this is here. To the extent those characters appear it’s as Jackie saw them, and in this sense it’s very honest indeed. Couple of notes: Peter Sarsgaard is unexepected and excellent as Bobby Kennedy, and Caspar Phillipson has what amounts to some cameos as JFK, which are suitably convincing. John Carroll Lynch is excellent (depending on your sympathies) in his couple moments as Lyndon Johnson. Greta Gerwig finds her unhurried delivery a perfect match for the character of Jackie’s social secretary. I’ve always enjoyed seeing old black and white photos come to life in faithful (and full color) reenactments — you’ll get a good deal of that. And everyone looks prim in those sixties hairdos.
There are also some interesting undercurrents in Jackie: The notion that powerful public figures are real, breathing, and flawed people comes up a fair bit, and is of course well served by the picture itself; another theme is the concept of mythmaking, even revisionism. While barely hinting at the scandalous rumors that attended JFK’s time in office, Jackie takes it upon herself promptly to fashion her dead husband’s legacy — aligning him with Lincoln (and at one point, Jesus) and designing a funeral procession to suit (the former, of course). What does JFK mean to the nation now? And how much of that might only be so because of what Jackie, in his wake, decided to say?
This is a visually beautiful period piece, and a quiet tour de force by Portman. Don’t see it on your first date — it’s slow and heavy — but don’t wait to stream it, either. This is a strong, thoughtful picture, and you’ll be glad when you give it the audience it deserves.
Haus Verdict: Portman inhabits Jacqueline Kennedy and shows us the week that followed JFK’s shooting. Powerful, heavy, honest, and exceedingly well done.
Jackie opened in limited release on December 9.
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