a slow lament

Rating: 4/10 (27 January 2017)

Perhaps the idea was to make a movie in the style of a funeral cortege, as one long, slow lament. If so, writer Noah Oppenheim and director Pablo Larraín have succeeded. The result, though, is a ponderous, portentous, heavy-handed film, illuminated by Nathalie Portman's star turn as Jackie Kennedy. She is stunning, and is ably supported by Peter Skarsgaard, Billy Crudup, John Hurt and Greta Gerwig, among others. But when a cast like this, with a central performance as good as that, can't prevent the enterprise from sinking under the weight of its pretensions, there's not a lot to be said in mitigation. Mica Levy's Oscar-nominated score is among the casualties: beautiful music, which will sound great on an album I've no doubt, but it doesn't help the film escape its weary slog towards the end credits. Madeline Fontaine's costume designs, which also got an Oscar nod, are fortunately free from the obsequies.