A curiosity, which is more than you can say of most biopics. Jackie makes the smart move of focusing on a concentrated time frame, in this case the days immediately following President John. F Kennedy’s assassination, during which the First Lady (Natalie Portman) comes to terms with what his killing means personally, but mostly publicly. Director Pablo Larraín stages this as a psychodrama, giving prominence to Mica Levi’s off-kilter score and pushing the camera into Portman’s face (at least when it’s not stalking her as she wanders aimlessly through the empty White House, something like Jack Nicholson in The Shining). No wonder, then, that Portman gives a Black Swan-sized performance. It’s not the affected manner of speech that’s bothersome (she’s actually mimicking the real Jackie Kennedy quite closely), but rather the fact that the acting is so out-front and on the surface. Portman’s Jackie is someone relentlessly cognizant of the image she’s projecting, and you can feel that same sort of self-consciousness in the performance.
