‘Jackie’ was a modern cinematic masterpiece directed by Pablo Larraín telling the true story of the newly-widowed First Lady Jackie Kennedy. This film shows Jackie (Natalie Portman) dealing with the horrors of seeing her husband’s assassination while trying to maintain her Catholic faith and being a good mother to her children. Larraín created a marvellous piece of artwork about this inspirational woman however missed making a good film.
Nearly all aspects of this film were close to perfection. Portman imitated Jackie Kennedy’s overly girly, artificial sounding voice so successfully that it gives Portman a very good chance on winning her second Oscar; the film’s costume designer, Madeline Fontaine, and the make up department managed to replicate Kennedy’s sophisticated fashion sense excellently; and all of this was shown through exquisite cinematography .
While the film looked and sounded gorgeous, there was one important asset of the film that wasn’t accomplished: a well-formed plot. ‘Jackie’ was essentially a cluster of five well-shot scenes of Natalie Portman portraying the First Lady that were cut up and mixed together. This could be seen as artistic license and could be perceived as Jackie being ‘lost in her memories’, but I saw it more as a glamorous documentary that only brushed over a few facts about Jackie Kennedy. In short, it had no ‘proper’ story line.
Despite the lack of a good plot, I realise that film is a visual median and Larraín certainly succeeded at making ‘Jackie’ a beautiful film to look at. I can safely say I am glad to have seen it however it is not a film I’m particularly eager to watch again.
Harriet MacDonald Eggers
Film: Jackie Director: Pablo Larraín Cast: Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup, John Hurt
Showing in Cinemas: Odeon Leicester Square, Vue at Westfield, Barbican Centre, Odeon Swiss Cottage.
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