Image and reality

Rating: 7/10 (22 February 2017)

Here's a director that really grows with every movie he is making and it is very interesting to follow these steps as a moviegoer: Post Mortem was so idiosyncratic that my interest started, In No he explored the technical side of movie-making only to further advance his technical and storytelling skills in the seriously underrated El Club. And after Neruda Jackie can now be seen as his best work to date, for the first time directing a big production with US actors, producers and staff attached. The result is highly interesting, offering exactly what most mainstream movies are missing nowadays: courage and cinematic exploration.
Right from the beginning the impression starts to dawn that something special is done here, combining images of Jackie with reality. What Larraín also does is to make the hand-held camera entering and moving into the personal space around Jackie, to a point where it almost feels inappropriate for the viewer. Jackie's shifting states of mind are in this way well-documented and can be internalized by us, while Portman's outstanding preparation and acting makes this approach work, in collaboration with the cinematography by Stéphane Fontaine, creating what he called "the sneaky intimacy". The score by Mica Levi (Under the Skin) creates the eerie, detached atmosphere the movie intends to display.
There are many interesting scenes in this movie, but three stand out for me: The airplane scene just brings over the feeling of loss, desperation, solitude and detachment so well I have never seen anything like this in a movie. In the end, the shots of Jackie watching mannequins and shop windows from the car enhances the idea of her public and private image and is rather powerful. And the Malick reference filmed during golden hour in the end is apt here. Downsides are the Camelot musical and priest parts (not the acting itself by John Hurt BTW), they are overlong and start to undo the unsettling effect of the movie. The more graphic parts in effect also detract some of the power of the movie and were unnecessary additions in my opinion.
The movie does a great job by mixing movie shots with real footage of the 1962 White House tour; this game is rather effective. Portman now effectively interprets a performance by a character she is playing, creating the basis for the multi-levelled acting performances she is renowned for. For recreating the tour footage in the movie vintage cameras from the 60s were used, comparable to what Larraín did in No, so the scenes shot in 16 mm could be mingled with the documentary footage.