Noah Oppenheim's screenplay goes back and forth in time with Mrs. Kennedy (Natalie Portman). Most of the movie sees her interviewed by Life's Theodore H.White (Billy Crudup) a week after the assassination. We see her guide the press through the White House. We see her arrive in Dallas and her shock and grief over her husband's death. We see her plan John Kennedy's funeral with Robert Kennedy (Peter Sarsgaard). We see her consult a priest (John Hurt) over plans to rebury her short-lived children next to their father. We see a lot of things. Jackie spent a short time making sense of the world.
And I spent 99 minutes making sense of the movie. The screenplay's biggest problem is how it jumbles events around. A few scenes, like the TV White House tour, were easy to guess chronologically. Others were hard to guess. Were they before the funeral? After the funeral? Before Lee Harvey Oswald got shot or after? There weren't many captions to set the dates.
The acting was much better. Portman's Jackie believably goes from "winsome innocence" to world-weariness. Her agony and anger over the assassination is understandable. In private, all she asks herself is "why?" She still tries to put on a brave face for the public and her children. It's the Priest that helps her makes sense of the world. Her accent was on-point with the real Jackie Kennedy, who appears in stock footage (or was it Portman in good recreations?). The best of the supporting cast are Greta Gerwig as Jackie's confidant Nancy Tuckerman and Max Casella as White House liaison and later MPAA head Jack Valenti.
The film's somberness is punctuated by Mica Levi's surreal score. Its darkest themes perfectly capture the feeling that the world has stopped. Its lightest themes are the world trying to start again. And yes, Camelot figures into the soundtrack as we hear the OBC recording of the title tune and its reprise.
Meanwhile, costume designer Madeline Fontaine perfectly recreates Jackie's famous wardrobe. Cinematographer Stephane Fontaine keeps his focus on Jackie in every scene. Production designer Jean Rabasse provides another good recreation of the 1960's. The Makeup team saves the sight of a wounded President Kennedy for the end and it's shocking.
Jackie could've used more scenes with Jackie and John together. In fact, John Kennedy is barely a presence. But for what we have, the film is a fine study of grief and acceptance. I think what got Jackie going is the knowledge that she and her husband, like Camelot, accomplished a lot in their short time. It reaffirms the power of nostalgia.
The film's somberness is punctuated by Mica Levi's surreal score. Its darkest themes perfectly capture the feeling that the world has stopped. Its lightest themes are the world trying to start again. And yes, Camelot figures into the soundtrack as we hear the OBC recording of the title tune and its reprise.
Meanwhile, costume designer Madeline Fontaine perfectly recreates Jackie's famous wardrobe. Cinematographer Stephane Fontaine keeps his focus on Jackie in every scene. Production designer Jean Rabasse provides another good recreation of the 1960's. The Makeup team saves the sight of a wounded President Kennedy for the end and it's shocking.
Jackie could've used more scenes with Jackie and John together. In fact, John Kennedy is barely a presence. But for what we have, the film is a fine study of grief and acceptance. I think what got Jackie going is the knowledge that she and her husband, like Camelot, accomplished a lot in their short time. It reaffirms the power of nostalgia.
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