Pablo Larraín’s Jackie is a story we all know, right from the start to the end of the former First Lady. Yet, Natalie Portman delivers a moving performance with her equally photographic and haunting portrayal of Jacqueline “Jackie” Kennedy.
Featuring events from before, during and after the assassination of the then President of the United States, John F Kennedy, the film shifts from a warm facade with dark undertones to an out and out poignant experience, indelible in the memories of the audience.
Right from the assassination in Dallas where a blood-stained Jackie held her husband with an expression of sheer horror on her face, the film sets its tone that it maintains throughout the course of the plot. Mica Levi’s uncanny cacophony of a soundtrack only helps amplify the atmosphere of Jackie.
The perfection in the minute intricacies of Portman’s Jackie is commendable. From Jackie’s cold, distant yet feeling voice to her posture, Portman delivers a stellar performance and might just bag another Oscar for the movie. Portman studied the behaviour of the former First Lady extensively through documentaries and file footage as part of her role.
Keeping aside the fact that she is playing the protagonist, Portman’s brilliance brings you the different facets of the character; a loving wife, a grieving widow, a caring mother, an enigmatic First Lady and the constant face of a woman shaken to her very core. Jackie seems as if she is teetering on the cusp of a breakdown but, holds it together as time lashes past her and carries her forward.
Also starring Peter Sarsgaard, Billy Crudup, Greta Gerwig and John Hurt, Jackie is truly heartbreaking and is an impactful drama. Never before have we seen a more appreciable recount of a real-life event, especially one so prominent.
Jackie is certainly the movie of the year.
