If you’ve been following this site, then you would have known that Jackie has already been reviewed on this site. For a deeper analysis, I recommend you read Josh Tarpley’s earlier review. I won’t be doing a full on review per se but since it is a big film, I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on it. I will say that I liked it more than he did.
This film begins and ends with Natalie Portman’s performance as Jackie. She has been nominated and/or won plenty of awards for her performance and she has definitely earned everything she’s received so far. She is one of the frontrunners for the Best Actress Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards and after watching it (I have yet to see Elle but will soon) she will be hard to beat.
She singlehandedly carried the film with her performance, absolutely embodying Jackie Kennedy. The film heavily relied on her, featuring a bevy of closeups of a woman damaged by tragedy, trying her best to keep herself together while struggling to find a new identity. Jackie was still a strong-willed, independent woman who did not want to be defined by the world around her.
She was amazing at depicting her varied emotions, saying so much while saying so little, relying only on her subtle facial expressions. The film’s closeups almost felt like we were invading her own personal space which was probably what she also felt. She just gave the character many levels of depth and making her into a genuine, relatable person.
This was a very beautiful film, almost dream-like, and was probably one of the best looking films I’ve seen in a long time. Along with the amazing score, it aided the film’s storytelling. Those and the performance were what made this very captivating to watch. Because this was a biopic, the film had its historical moments which could have bogged things down but that didn’t happen here.
The most surprising thing about the whole film was that it was directed by a Chilean director named Pablo Larrain who could barely speak English (from what I’ve read). As far as snubs are concerned, it was nominated for Best Actress (for Portman), Best Costume Design, and Best Original Score which were all well deserved but I would have also given it a nomination for Best Cinematography as I still can’t get over how beautiful it was.
Overall, this was an amazing film in every aspect, from its look, to its story, and its performances with Portman elevating the film even further with an Oscar-worthy performance.
Score: 9.5/10
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.