There is a moment which best sums up the chaos this human is experiencing. She is walking through a deserted white house, surrounded by classic luxury, wearing her iconic designer fashion, covered in blood, her face a mask of disbelief. She is alone in Camelot. It's stunningly horrifying, in 60s technicolor. She is impossibly beautiful and unbelievably strong. Who has to live this kind of tragedy in such a public way?
Jackie acknowledges that it is a personal reflection. Based on a famous interview she gave for Life Magazine, Jackie the film begins with Jackie herself explaining she is going to tell her version of events. She is defiant. She is angry. She is dignified. She endures horror, the spectacle of her family's life coming into stark focus as the world goes crazy around her. She survives it through a combination of fragility, strength, and wit. We see it through her eyes, as it all falls apart, and as she struggles to hold on.
Portman proves she remains one of her generation's greatest actors. This is a home run, knock it out of the park sort of performance. It works on all levels, viscerally, subtly, emotionally.
Jackie is downright unsettling most of the time, as it should be. It covers a brief period of this woman's life, a period of immense pain, a period so many have focused on for so long but never on what she was enduring at the time. Jackie is all about her and her journey through a personal hell which was so exploited publicly. Beautifully shot and powerfully performed, Jackie is about surviving and doing so gloriously.
Jackie
Starring: Natalie Portman, Peter Saarsguard, Billy Crudup, John Hurt
Director: Pablo Lorraine
Writer: Noah Oppenheim
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