Channelling Helen Mirren - and Marilyn Monroe!

Rating: 7/10 (27 January 2017)

I'd intended to pass on this, assuming it would be another soap- opera version of history, like the dire DIANA movie four years ago. But with Natalie Portman Oscar-nominated, it seemed worth seeing – and it is. The scenes recreating JFK's assassination and the state funeral are as harrowing to view now as they were in 1963, and the moments Jackie shares with the children, John Junior and Caroline, are exquisitely poignant. The movie's other main focus is on an interview between the First Lady and a reporter (Billy Crudup) in which she intends to secure her husband's historical legacy. To hammer home the inextricable link between the Kennedy White House and Camelot (Jackie demands the credit for this), we get to hear Richard Burton singing the show's title song – twice (a musical treat!).
Portman's portrayal of the widow in the historical scenes is flawless, a woman forced to share her grief with the cameras and the Johnson Administration staff. In the interview scenes Portman alternates between insecurity and a kind of imperiousness that made me think she was channelling Helen Mirren channelling Elizabeth II. The tour of the White House renovations she did for television in 1961 is reconstructed, with Jackie all nervy and breathless and reminding me (how ironical) of Marilyn Monroe. Peter Sarsgaard makes a believable Bobby Kennedy, mainly required to be a shoulder to cry on. Caspar Phillipson is a good look-alike for Jack in the historical scenes, although Billy Crudup also has a degree of resemblance to the President, which I found disconcerting.
I'm going to be the Grinch of the Season and say that, although this film does considerable justice to its subject, I don't think it deserves to win awards, but then I feel the same way about LA LA LAND, which is clearly heading for glory.