Haunting performance from Portman as the First Lady
in Jackie, a bravura portrait of a wife and mother struggling to come to terms with sudden loss whilst publicly remaining strong for her children and the American people.
Screenwriter Noah Oppenheim sensitively imagines grief behind closed doors to piece together events before and after the fateful motorcade in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.
Scenes of Jackie trembling with shock as she wipes make-up and her husband’s blood from her face in the aftermath of the shooting are horribly compelling, as is the moment she must break the devastating news to her two children, skirting nimbly around the horrible, brutal facts.
In order to bring the fragmented memories into focus, Larrain employs a jarring framing device.
Journalist Theodore H White (Billy Crudup) visits the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, a few days after the assassination to interview Jackie (Natalie Portman).
From the outset, Jackie attempts to gain a semblance of control she never had in the White House.
Larrain’s film is a mesmerising kaleidoscope of real and imagined details, galvanized by Portman’s haunting embodiment of a widow in emotional isolation.
She effortlessly captures the breathless vocal mannerisms, clawing at our hearts in centrepiece sequences that remind us of the merciless ebb and flow of power on Capitol Hill.