A review of the recent Portman film “Jackie”

Israeli-born actress Natalie Portman has come a long way since her amazing performance as a young girl in the thriller “Leon”, winning an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in “Black Swan”.

In this film, she portrays Jacqueline Kennedy in the days between the assassination and funeral of her husband, US President John F Kennedy, in 1963. It is an exceptional representation, affecting the unusual voice of her subject and communicating the horror and pain of the First Lady’s experience and her determination to have the funeral she thought appropriate.

This is the first English-language film from Chilean director Pablo Larrain and it is a respectful if, ultimately (and perhaps inevitably), cold work with Mica Levi’s discordant score adding to the sense of alienation.

As Jackie tells the reporter whose interview is the framing device for the film: “Don’t let it be forgot, that for one brief, shining moment there was a Camelot.”


 




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