An extraordinary bio-drama
JACKIE Running time: 1hr 40min Starring: Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup, John Hurt, Richard E Grant Director: Pablo Larrain
EXTRAORDINARY in its piercing intimacy and lacerating in its sorrow, Jackie is a raw portrait of an iconic American first lady, reeling in the wake of tragedy while at the same time summoning the defiant fortitude needed to make her husband’s death meaningful, and to ensure her own survival as something more than a fashionably dressed footnote.
Powered by an astonishing performance from a never-better Natalie Portman in the title role, this unconventional bio-drama also marks a boldly assured English-language debut for Pablo Larrain, the gifted Chilean director.
Moulding the layered examination of Noah Oppenheim’s screenplay like a master sculptor, Larrain makes Jackie no less perceptive in its contemplation of America’s loss of innocence than in its under-the-skin study of the bleeding wounds of grief.
Larrain wastes not a moment before showing us the tangled wreckage of Jackie’s psyche in closeup as she strolls the grounds of the family compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, a week after John F Kennedy was murdered. When an unnamed journalist (Billy Crudup) arrives at the house to interview her, there are no staff to usher him in, no filters. In her quietly adversarial first words to him, she makes it clear she will be editing the conversation: “In case I don’t say exactly what I mean.”
In a high-wire performance that encompasses the careful poise as well as the bone-deep insecurities of its subject, Portman’s voice is her greatest asset. There’s a finishingschool exactitude to her phrasing, coupled with quivering notes like fine bone china that might crack with even the softest impact. But she also has a cool authority when required.
One of Oppenheim’s smartest ideas was to use the 1962 network television special, A Tour of the White House With Mrs. John F Kennedy, to shed light on the public perception of Jackie during JFK’s presidency. Those scenes mix black-and-white recreations of the special with glimpses of the nervous on-camera guide being coaxed and reassured between takes by loyal staffer Nancy Tuckerman (Greta Gerwig).
That focus on décor amplifies the public perception of Jackie as a lightweight, or as she puts it in a spiky exchange with her brother-in-law Bobby (Peter Sarsgaard), “some silly little debutante”.
Sarsgaard gives this next doomed figure of the Kennedy clan robust dimensions, showing his anger, grief and resentment but also his scrambling bid to ensure the work he and his brother started and were unable to finish does not go uncredited.
While their roles are limited in scope and screen time, performers like John Hurt, Gerwig, Crudup and Richard E Grant all register strongly.
There’s also brilliant use of songs from the Lerner & Loewe musical Camelot, a name steeped in legend that would for ever be associated with the Kennedy administration, for better or worse. – The Hollywood Reporter