Jackie *** (2016, Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup, John Hurt, Richard E Grant) – Movie Review

Natalie Portman was nominated for a Golden Globe and Bafta award as Best Actress playing – carefully and well – First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, who is interviewed by a Journalist (Billy Crudup) soon after the assassination of her husband, President John F Kennedy.

She struggles with some big stuff – grief, trauma, her Catholic faith, her children, her brother-in-law Bobby Kennedy (Peter Sarsgaard) and her assistant Nancy Tuckerman (Greta Gerwig), her place in the world and her husband’s legacy. John Hurt plays her priest, Richard E Grant plays Bill Walton and John Carroll Lynch plays in-coming President Lyndon B Johnson. They all make their mark, if briefly.

For this is Portman’s show – the whole show. She is by no means obvious casting as Jacqueline Kennedy, but she is a strong actress, and she acts her way gracefully and confidently through it. She crackles with tension in her scenes with Crudup. Sarsgaard successfully defies his miscasting as Bobby Kennedy, erasing memories of his poor performance as the villain in The Magnificent Seven. Oddly, like Sarsgaard, Portman was last seen in 2016 in a Western too, Jane Got a Gun. Portman’s working hard to establish a range of work.

She has a lot of good technical backing – Pablo Larraín as Director, Noah Oppenheim on Screenplay, Sebastián Sepúlveda on Editing, Jean Rabasse and and Véronique Melery on Art Direction, Madeline Fontaine on Costume Design, Mica Levi on Original Score. They are all up for awards, and could win one or two. They all do Portman – and Jacqueline Kennedy – proud. It is a smart and stylish film.

It is also a small, intimate film, no more than a TV movie, but a good one, not exciting but touching, thoughtful and intelligent. It is inevitably a depressing experience too, despite its upbeat idea of it being a story of courage and survival. Pondering a personal tragedy like this, played out on the great international stage, is uncomfortable, challenging viewing, to say the least.

It cost $9,000,000 and has done well for a serious-minded movie to take back around the same sum at the American box office.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review

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