Life after death

Rating: 7/10 (3 May 2017)

Biopics can be a tricky subject. If you try and cover the full life of a remarkable person, you're likely to end up glossing over some important events, or missing them completely. If you choose to focus on just a single event in the life of a real person, you can often lose some characterisation.
Jackie is basically a snapshot of the week after JFK was killed, and shows how Jacqueline Kennedy reacts to the loss of her husband, and how she has to present herself to the outside world. The death of JFK was certainly one of those moments that shocked the world, and I imagine would have turned everyone's focus to the White House for days or even weeks afterwards. (It was before my time, but I do remember the death of Princess Diana, and in a similar example from the entertainment world, Michael Jackson.)
Played by Natalie Portman, Jackie Kennedy spends the majority of the movie talking to either a reporter (Billy Crudup), or her priest (John Hurt) – neither of which, for some reason, are given names. These conversations often trigger Kennedy's memories and other moments from the week between her husband's passing and his funeral, with a focus given to the way Kennedy balances life as the now former First Lady with life as a new widow. In that, we also see how she breaks the news to her children, and copes with being a newly single mother – one who has to explain to very young children that their father isn't coming home.
Portman has a lot to do here. I can't tell you how well she does portraying Kennedy specifically, but as far as showing the balance the pressures of all aspects of the life of someone in this situation, she does remarkably well. The problem is her accent.
During Kennedy's presidency, Jackie opened the doors of the White House to a camera crew, showcasing some of the building's features for the public to see. Kennedy herself, with the help of a host / interviewer, narrated this series of videos, and the movie recreates several of them. In these, Kennedy is doing what she sees as a public duty, and her performance comes across as very stoic. She answers questions very simply, and on occasion points out some of her favourite pieces in terms of furniture and artwork. Portman's voice in these scenes is entirely different to her voice in the more natural scenes, where she's simply speaking to the reporter or the priest, and the difference between these voices is not only jarring, but her attempt at a native US accent is baffling, given that Portman moved to the US at age three, and her natural voice likely would have been fine here. Instead she tries to sound like she's a person of importance or distinction. Granted, the character she's playing most certainly is, but that's far better showcased through the film's wardrobe and the fact that Kennedy – at several points – must verbally go toe-to-toe with not only the reporter, but also White House officials and other politicians over arrangements for JFK's funeral, and not once does she back down or let herself be talked over simply because she's a woman and all the other power players at the time were men.
Kennedy does change her mind a couple of times, but it's implied that this is more about doing what the public would want versus what her husband would want, and trying to find some sense of privacy and normalcy for her family. But when she has to speak up and deal with the rest of said power players, Portman does indeed bring across an air of authority.
The central conflict of the film deals with whether or not Kennedy should accompany the car carrying her husband's body in the funeral procession. The film goes back and forth on this – which seems realistic, as making important decisions after the death of a loved one can be trying, with people changing their minds several times over – and one particularly dark moment in Kennedy's discussion with her priest gives some insight as to why she might want to accompany her husband's body.
Jackie is a difficult film to review or really talk about at all, as it doesn't really have a story. In other movies, I'd likely criticise that quite harshly. Here, a story isn't the point. It's a "day in the life" feature, and deals more with characters than it does plot points. The conflict mentioned above drives what little story there is, but even that serves as a way to give us insight into the way Kennedy was thinking in the days following her husband's death, and how that event affected her overall. In that, Jackie does a fine job, and for people who are particularly interested in this as a historical event, or who remember the assassination of JFK and wanted a more personal look at how that affected the people closest to him, Jackie is probably a film they'll want to check out, and I can even see it becoming a favourite of people's collections. For me, there were several interesting parts, and I particularly liked John Hurt as the priest, but most of the movie is probably lost on me simply due to age.
For what Jackie seemed like it was trying to accomplish, it does remarkably well. It's a shame Portman's voice was so grating in places, as that takes away from what was really a very good performance overall. While the story is practically non-existent, the character study does a great job of demonstrating why a movie like this doesn't necessarily need a story.
For my full review of this and other movies, visit my website at theblogfather.co.nz