Forgetable

Rating: 3/10 (25 January 2020)

Jackie isn't so much a movie as it is a travelogue of Natalie Portman's face. It's a good face and she looks like Jackie, and Ms Portman is a good actress, but she isn't required to do much here except weep and be sad with a movie camera stuck to her face. The audience isn't really given much more to think about or look at except this ever-present very tight shot of Jackie's face. Strangely given this intimate style of film making, I never felt anything for any of the characters or their problems including Jackie. To say the movie moves along at a very slow pace is not entirely true: I don't think there is any pace to this film other than jump cuts from past to present. Another big problem with the film is that much of the dialogue and conversations would have been very private and unless this script has been exhaustively researched, it all adds up to a pile of fiction and a camera in someone's face. Attempts were made by the writer and director to include sub plots - assassination and what that means for the Kenndedy's as well as America, Communist plots at taking over the government - but they were half hearted attempts at best. Likewise, references to the sensationalist media, expectations of elected officials and their families, life in the public eye, struggles for a legacy, public versus private grief, all these are dropped as quickly as they are raised. Even "Camelot" gets only passing reference in the last five minutes of the film as if to throw yet another bit of gravitas into this one note movie. For me, I wonder why this film was even made.