REVIEW: JACKIE
Say the words "First Lady" to anyone over about 30, and the next two words they associate with that will probably be "Jackie Kennedy," or if they really know their history, "Jackie Onasis." Anyone around my age will probably say Michelle Obama, and while I anticipate a movie made about her legacy in the decades to come, Jackie is surely the most iconic in modern history. The last memorable depiction of a First Lady was in Spielberg's Lincoln, where Sally Field played Mary Todd Lincoln as an unhinged, witty partner to her husband's more calm figure. Field lost the Oscar that year to Anne Hathaway crying, but Natalie Portman looks poised to win her second Best Actress Oscar as the widow who captured the hearts of a generation.
The film follows Lincoln's outline of effective biography: focus on one aspect of this person's enormous life and dissect it, find out the key players, and examine the conflict that made them who they are. In that film, it was Honest Abe's successful attempt to pass the 13th Amendment. Here, in somewhat smaller stakes, we get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how Jackie handled herself following her husband's assassination, right until she walked with many others at his funeral procession. Perhaps a mini-series would be fit to try to encapsulate this extremely complicated woman's life, but just this one particular week works well under Pablo Larraín's direction.
Portman is heavy on the accent and heavy on the stress as Jackie Kennedy, conversing with Bobby Kennedy (Peter Sarsgaard) about their shared loss, delves into faith with a priest (William Hurt), all while being interviewed by a journalist (Billy Crudup, who delivers a strong performance despite his limited role/screen time). The journalist and priest are billed as just that, representations of combinations of figures in Jackie's life. I've heard complaints about Sarsgaard's performance, mostly due to his lack of looking/sounding like his real-life counterpart. I'm not knowledgable enough to be informed about that, so I thought he was serviceable in the role. While the accent gets a little grating, Portman gives a strong performance here, in a role that certainly does not make its titular character look good. Her Jackie is a strong, determined, poised woman who knows exactly how people see her and exactly how she wants to be seen. She shares a fictional First Lady's knack for controlling self-image; Claire Underwood in "House of Cards."
I'd be remiss not to mention the greatest supporting character in the ensemble: Stéphane Fontaine's camera. Fontaine shot one of my favorite films this year, Captain Fantastic, but his cinematography is exceptional in Jackie. The camera is always close-by: the film is in her perspective after all, and it's rare we get a shot without her point of view. Sebastián Sepúlvada's editing is also commendable. At first the jumpiness of the scenes were distracting, but then I realized this is a memory film. It all made sense. The costumes were gorgeous, the production design, primarily the 1963 White House was gorgeous. Technically speaking, Jackie fires on all cylinders. It's theme concerns legacy and posterity: how will JFK (portrayed but not shown for very long) be remembered, how will Jackie be remembered? Characters are very aware of the impact their decisions will have on American history, not just their own.
Story-wise, the film did lose me at times. I'd be lying if I said I didn't fight consciousness in the middle of it, which I also did in Arrival, but I don't think I 'fessed up to that one. In that film is what circumstantial, the theater was warm and I had on a comfy jacket, but Jackie just bored me in parts. While Noah Oppenheim's plot structure is unique, its dialogue can feel a bit dry. Ever since I heard someone make a comment on how Lenny Abrahamson's Room would be better as an HBO TV movie because it wasn't "cinematic enough," I've asked myself, "does this film deserve to be shown on the big screen?" Would it serve better as a play or a TV special? I wavered back and forth on this, which is a shame since Jackie is such a fascinating woman, and deserves a cinematic treatment as big as she was. But points to Larraín, his crew, and probably soon-to-be double Oscar-wining actress Natalie Portman for putting a spin on what is a usually predictable sub-genre of biopic. You're better off reading a book about the First Lady if you want facts, but Jackie is still fine entertainment.
Rating: 3/4 stars
The film follows Lincoln's outline of effective biography: focus on one aspect of this person's enormous life and dissect it, find out the key players, and examine the conflict that made them who they are. In that film, it was Honest Abe's successful attempt to pass the 13th Amendment. Here, in somewhat smaller stakes, we get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how Jackie handled herself following her husband's assassination, right until she walked with many others at his funeral procession. Perhaps a mini-series would be fit to try to encapsulate this extremely complicated woman's life, but just this one particular week works well under Pablo Larraín's direction.
Portman is heavy on the accent and heavy on the stress as Jackie Kennedy, conversing with Bobby Kennedy (Peter Sarsgaard) about their shared loss, delves into faith with a priest (William Hurt), all while being interviewed by a journalist (Billy Crudup, who delivers a strong performance despite his limited role/screen time). The journalist and priest are billed as just that, representations of combinations of figures in Jackie's life. I've heard complaints about Sarsgaard's performance, mostly due to his lack of looking/sounding like his real-life counterpart. I'm not knowledgable enough to be informed about that, so I thought he was serviceable in the role. While the accent gets a little grating, Portman gives a strong performance here, in a role that certainly does not make its titular character look good. Her Jackie is a strong, determined, poised woman who knows exactly how people see her and exactly how she wants to be seen. She shares a fictional First Lady's knack for controlling self-image; Claire Underwood in "House of Cards."I'd be remiss not to mention the greatest supporting character in the ensemble: Stéphane Fontaine's camera. Fontaine shot one of my favorite films this year, Captain Fantastic, but his cinematography is exceptional in Jackie. The camera is always close-by: the film is in her perspective after all, and it's rare we get a shot without her point of view. Sebastián Sepúlvada's editing is also commendable. At first the jumpiness of the scenes were distracting, but then I realized this is a memory film. It all made sense. The costumes were gorgeous, the production design, primarily the 1963 White House was gorgeous. Technically speaking, Jackie fires on all cylinders. It's theme concerns legacy and posterity: how will JFK (portrayed but not shown for very long) be remembered, how will Jackie be remembered? Characters are very aware of the impact their decisions will have on American history, not just their own.
Story-wise, the film did lose me at times. I'd be lying if I said I didn't fight consciousness in the middle of it, which I also did in Arrival, but I don't think I 'fessed up to that one. In that film is what circumstantial, the theater was warm and I had on a comfy jacket, but Jackie just bored me in parts. While Noah Oppenheim's plot structure is unique, its dialogue can feel a bit dry. Ever since I heard someone make a comment on how Lenny Abrahamson's Room would be better as an HBO TV movie because it wasn't "cinematic enough," I've asked myself, "does this film deserve to be shown on the big screen?" Would it serve better as a play or a TV special? I wavered back and forth on this, which is a shame since Jackie is such a fascinating woman, and deserves a cinematic treatment as big as she was. But points to Larraín, his crew, and probably soon-to-be double Oscar-wining actress Natalie Portman for putting a spin on what is a usually predictable sub-genre of biopic. You're better off reading a book about the First Lady if you want facts, but Jackie is still fine entertainment.Rating: 3/4 stars
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