Jackie

A film image on how we organized President Kennedy's funeral. Unfortunately, Jackie falls into that wave of biopics that pick only a minimal fraction of a key figure's life and build on that. It conveys nothing more than the heightened emotion of a single moment, and that is a complete waste for the surface of a feature film. (2021-10-27)

A non-Hollywood gem through and through, dominated by stewed emotions and a contact camera. Natalie Portman is in a different league, but I feel like this story of a fresh widow deserves a stronger framing, perhaps in a film where she's not the lead, but rather a prominent supporting character. Larraín pulls it off extremely artistically, but the stranglehold on the audience's empathy gets annoying in the second half. (2017-12-18)

A director with a remarkable style and a target audience consisting mainly of coffee-shop intellectuals tackled a topic for a general audience in an interesting manner with his traditionally minimalist style and monotonous rhythm. But Jackie is also an empty shell of a film, without a dramatic arch or a message. The only ones willing to discuss the director’s intention will be the coffee-shop intellectuals (without actually getting anywhere, as always). (2017-02-07)

Yikes, that was depressing! I was bored out of my mind. The creators failed to get me interested in anything they were trying to say. Natalie Portman in the lead role was absolutely terrible. Not for a moment did I manage to forget that it was her playing Jacqueline Kennedy, which is a major problem for me. A good acting performance lets you forget that it's an acting performance. (2018-01-27)

A perfectly sad film - it really managed to transfer all those feelings and moods to me - shock, grief, determination... I like these biographical films that really don't try to tell you everything, but instead focus on a few days, one event that helps us get to know the protagonists well, if not better. In a classic film we'd wait for scenes of “now they got to know each other, now they got married, now they have a wedding, now he has a mistress, now they have a crisis..." and they could have been ticking those off in spirit. Here, we will only go into the past every now and then when it makes sense and it is necessary to balance that terrible presence with some bright moment. Natalie Portman is great in a tough role, and from her profile she is very similar to Jackie, and if she acts stilted, I'm sure it's because Jackie behaved unnatural in those situations as well. In the book that this film is based on, she talks about two faces for privacy and for the public, and Natalie Portman captured exactly that - her heartbreaking cry after the assassination versus her stone face during Johnson's oath. The other actors were perfectly selected, and in each you will know the real character (JFK is the perfect doppelganger and it's not a mask), and the experience is enhanced by intimate directing and impressive melancholy music._____P.S. I can really recommend the book “Jackie: une femme d'influence" to everyone. It is based on two interviews with Jackie (one of them is this film) and Jackie is unusually open in them. If you look into her head and understand her feelings, you'll see how great this film is. (2021-03-03)