Didn't do much for me

Rating: 5/10 (25 June 2017)

'Jackie' had a great story on paper going for it, based on the aftermath and impact on Jackie Kennedy of one of the most interesting and shocking events in history.
While it does have some great merits, 'Jackie' didn't do much for me, instead leaving me rather lukewarm. On the whole it doesn't do a good job doing a potentially great story justice, feeling rather Cliff Notes and overwrought with very little insight. The best thing about it is the performance of Natalie Portman which is brilliant and was deserving of its acclaim. Portman has never looked lovelier and clearly did her homework, with her performance seeming much more real than just a mere imitation or caricature.
Other members of the cast also fare well, with good performances from Beth Grant and Greta Gerwig and Casper Phillipson does well in his limited screen time. Faring best is the sincere and quite poignant (when reminded that he took this role not long before succumbing to pancreatic cancer) performance of John Hurt.
There are a few good scenes. The footage scenes of the Kennedys is where 'Jackie' is at its most interesting, while the air-plane, mannequin and shopping windows and Malick reference scenes (as agreed with a previous reviewer) are powerful moments. The other most impressive assets are the production and costume design and make-up, beautiful to look at and evocative.
However, not all the casting works. Billy Crudup is stiff and lifeless as a pointless character in scenes that are out of place and confuse the structure of the story. Peter Sarsgaard, normally a reliable actor, is aside from being physically wrong for Bobby at his most wooden. Richard E Grant was odd casting as well.
A big problem was agreed the music score. Too intrusive, far too loud (drowning out the dialogue), dirge-like and repetitive. The only good part was the Cassals piece, speaking as a lover of the cello and having it as my second instrument (singing is my passion). Even my dad (a cellist and conductor) said "I can most likely write better music than that and I can't even compose!" For all the work that went into most of the production values, it was cheapened somewhat by some sloppy and haphazard editing with shots that didn't flow that well from scene to scene. Too many close ups too, some serving no point. The direction is pretty insipid, as is the overwrought and half-baked dialogue that is masked by sound quality that vastly favours the music over the dialogue.
Sadly, the slight story also didn't grip. Intimacy is mistaken for tedium and there is very little that's illuminating or new, nothing that we don't know already and the film fails to make the characters interesting (while one cannot fault Portman's performance even Jackie was written in a shallow way).
The interview scenes don't belong and confuse the story structure in the earlier parts of the film. Some other scenes are pointless, especially an overlong and weird scene with Jackie looking very glamorous and behaving neurotically accompanied by the very ill-fitting "Camelot", that belonged in a completely different film altogether. Could have done without Jackie being covered in blood, that was far too melodramatic and gratuitous, at least to me. All this felt like padding and dragged the film down.
In conclusion, not awful but didn't do much for me, very mixed feelings. 5/10 Bethany Cox