Sadly, soulless

Rating: 2/10 (20 August 2018)

One of my favourite things about watching 60s-era Jacqueline Kennedy giving a tour of the White House, is that the audience is being addressed respectfully. Mrs. Kennedy comes off as an intelligent, thinking human being who warmly expresses her interest in the things she is describing. Watching her speak, I return the warmth and respect.
Natalie Portman manages to parrot Mrs. Kennedy's accent, but conveys little of the intelligence and sophistication. The script, moreover, seems to require one to think Mrs. Kennedy a cold, manipulative narcissist of a woman. Her outbursts throughout the movie are juvenile. She wishes she had become a stenographer, and had married a "lazy, ugly man" - apparently because ordinary folks with ordinary jobs are beneath the Kennedys, and never feel grief or pain?
Ms. Portman's character is sly, and reveals that everything she says and does is duplicitous. She evidently has no personality, and neither do any of the supporting characters. They are mere filler, as the camera is otherwise glued to Ms. Portman's face through the five stages of grief: shock, crying, smoking, lying, and self-righteousness.
There was no reason for this story to be re-told in this flaccid way. It is a shallowly written melodrama, bleak and lifeless, at worst exploiting a real tragedy involving real people for a bit of speculative celebrity gossip.
The two stars is for John Hurt's talent - and the soundtrack, which was well done and added some interest.