well made

Rating: 7/10 (24 March 2017)

Former first lady Jackie Kennedy (Natalie Portman) is being interviewed by a reporter (Billy Crudup) after the event. After her husband was killed in Dallas, Lyndon B. Johnson is installed as the new President. Bobby Kennedy (Peter Sarsgaard) and assistant Nancy Tuckerman (Greta Gerwig) try to console her. She has a heated exchange with a priest (John Hurt). She maneuvers the uncertain times after the assassination and in the process, creates the legacy of Camelot.
There is something compelling about Natalie Portman's performance. It's more than mimicry. She has a sense of Jackie's upper class persona. The loss feels real. There isn't quite as much in terms of plot. There are also aspects that feel manufactured. John Hurt is a great actor but his scenes have an unreal quality. They are too close when they speak and their exchange is too written. It should be a high point but it fails to reach those heights. This is well made but not that dramatic.