Jackie

A non-Hollywood gem through and through, dominated by stewed emotions and a contact camera. Natalie Portman is in a different league, but I feel like this story of a fresh widow deserves a stronger framing, perhaps in a film where she's not the lead, but rather a prominent supporting character. Larraín pulls it off extremely artistically, but the stranglehold on the audience's empathy gets annoying in the second half. (18/12/2017)

A director with a remarkable style and a target audience consisting mainly of coffee-shop intellectuals tackled a topic for a general audience in an interesting manner with his traditionally minimalist style and monotonous rhythm. But Jackie is also an empty shell of a film, without a dramatic arch or a message. The only ones willing to discuss the director’s intention will be the coffee-shop intellectuals (without actually getting anywhere, as always). (07/02/2017)

I don’t think I have ever seen a movie that would be this strained and forced. I mean movies about American presidents do contain this type of boredom, but here it was emphasized by the terribly forced performance given by Natalie Portman, whom I really like under different circumstances. But in this one I couldn’t stand her at all. She was showing off in front of the camera and it seemed that she really really wanted to win an Oscar. She wanted it so hard that she couldn’t have been more annoying and less believable I guess. And on top of that, the greatest issue with the movie is that it’s actually about nothing at all. It does have its moments, but I think I could count those with the fingers of my hand. The rest is simply an absolutely worthless movie that is trying to speak to US citizens. I don’t think it makes any sense in Europe. (03/02/2017)

A perfectly sad film - it really managed to transfer all those feelings and moods to me - shock, grief, determination... I like these biographical films that really don't try to tell you everything, but instead focus on a few days, one event that helps us get to know the protagonists well, if not better. In a classic film we'd wait for scenes of “now they got to know each other, now they got married, now they have a wedding, now he has a mistress, now they have a crisis..." and they could have been ticking those off in spirit. Here, we will only go into the past every now and then when it makes sense and it is necessary to balance that terrible presence with some bright moment. Natalie Portman is great in a tough role, and from her profile she is very similar to Jackie, and if she acts stilted, I'm sure it's because Jackie behaved unnatural in those situations as well. In the book that this film is based on, she talks about two faces for privacy and for the public, and Natalie Portman captured exactly that - her heartbreaking cry after the assassination versus her stone face during Johnson's oath. The other actors were perfectly selected, and in each you will know the real character (JFK is the perfect doppelganger and it's not a mask), and the experience is enhanced by intimate directing and impressive melancholy music._____P.S. I can really recommend the book “Jackie: une femme d'influence" to everyone. It is based on two interviews with Jackie (one of them is this film) and Jackie is unusually open in them. If you look into her head and understand her feelings, you'll see how great this film is. (03/03/2021)

Jackie is actually an illustration of the opposite of Wes Anderson. Here we also have characters looking into the camera in centred compositions, characters in spacious interiors with fragmented sets and often a bold colour palette, as well as other stylistic devices primarily associated with the quirky hipster auteur. However, whereas Anderson takes delight in artificiality and stiffness suddenly interspersed with eruptions of chaotic bustle, Larraín shows the depressing nature and heaviness of rooms intended for dolls. Through the story of the first lady, who has to build a legacy of future history on a foundation of a sudden tragic loss, it surprisingly says a lot about Anderson’s creative method, which also composes from historical and artistic artefacts an idealised image of a Camelot that will never be again, but which we admire with even greater melancholy. (27/01/2022)