Jackie2016

Never embroidered or rehearsed, the way so many biopics are, this is a wonderful movie that feels freshly observed, like an uninvited peek through some forbidden White House keyhole, at the woman we called Jackie.

My God what a dull, morbid and depressing film. We were hoping that this would be about her life, how she met and married JFK, their relationship, and maybe they would have the assassination in the last 15 minutes. Instead, it is set straight after the assassination. Just a bleak, miserable film. Turned it off after an ~hour. Maybe, if you don't mind that you can see some value here, but not for me and my Mum. The cinematography is excellent, with a 4:3 aspect ratio and footage that could have been taken straight from the time period. The sets and costumes are also excellent, but bear in mind this is only the 60s, it's not the 1600s. The sound mixing is atrocious. The music is way louder than the dialogue and I can barely hear Natalie speaking in her soft breathy voice. The music sounds more like a Hitchcock suspense thriller. What a bizarre choice. Natalie is fine as Jackie. I'm not familiar with Jackie so I can't really judge but she seems solid to me. Decent performances all round.

Superbly shot and accompanied by an alternately angular and lyrical score by Mica Levi, Jackie would have been an exceptionally smart, intriguing movie as an astutely conceived, well-crafted meditation on political mythmaking. In Larraín and Portman’s hands, it becomes something deeper and more emotionally potent.