When Larraín brings on John Hurt as a wizened and wily old priest, dispensing heartfelt but not exactly doctrinal spiritual advice to the widow, you can feel the movie lifting off into some ecstatic parallel universe of its own. It may be too strange for even the Academy, although Levi’s thrilling score, built from the deep, woody bass section of the strings where cellist Pablo Casals lived, deserves some kind of medal. “Jackie” is probably not a movie for mass audiences - too unsentimental, too interior, lacking in the touch of the circus. I started the film convinced the performance was a stunt and an awkward one at that by the end, I found myself terribly moved by the empathy and complexity of Portman’s portrayal and by the bravery of her creative imagination. What’s Jackie’s new role? Is it anything like who she actually is? The movie drifts along the edge of panic, which is a place Natalie Portman has always seemed comfortable (the narcotized fantasy play of her “Star Wars” movies notwithstanding). Everyone thinks she’s used to doing what she’s told.Īll these fine actors are underused in “Jackie” because their characters are secondary to the immediacy of the heroine’s grief and confusion - her coming to grips with her predicament. No one wants Jackie to walk with them alongside the funeral cortege in public. The children (Sunnie Pelant as Caroline and twins Aiden and Brody Weinberg as John Jr.) are children. Jackie’s own aide, Nancy Tuckerman (Greta Gerwig), is a sympathetic sisterly figure Bobby Kennedy (Peter Sarsgaard) is protective, racked with guilt, and cradling his own agenda. their warlike accoutrements than to their common dress, advises them to be less nice about their shoes and Sandals, and more careful in observing that. LBJ’s chief aide, Jack Valenti (Max Casella), has the face of a third-rate mortician (and a future as the creator of the movie ratings system that will grace “Jackie” with an R for brief strong violence and some language). Images we know from photos or grainy news footage acquire the weird weight of drama: the scene aboard Air Force One as Lyndon Johnson (John Carroll Lynch) is sworn in, his wife (Beth Grant) and Jackie at his side, the dead president’s body in the next compartment.Īt the White House, a power struggle discreetly commences as Johnson and his minions edge the widow toward the door. We see the blood on the dress, the skull fragment in her hand. Natalie Portman in “Jackie.” Pablo Larrain © 2016 Twentieth Century Fox
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |