Jackie (2016)

Jackie

• This might be one of my favorite female performances I’ve ever seen in any movie. I’ll get to the characters in just a second, but I just wanted to open this by seeing Natalie Portman is awesome. The movie in itself was very well made, and historically, it was pretty accurate. If you know me very well, then you know I love everything about the Kennedy dynasty and their history, so it’s only fitting that I watched this. Sometimes, Jackie sometimes falls in the shadows in certain books or shows, so seeing an entire movie dedicated to her and her retelling is awesome. Seeing her iconic outfits, the CBS special, and her impulsive reaction to JFK’s death was both educational and very intriguing. The plot is put together similarly like movies such as ‘J. Edgar’ and ‘Chaplin’. It bounces back and forth between points in time, but not in a confusing way. It’s very smooth with good transitions. The actual content of the plot is obvious: JFK’s death, and the aftermath. As I stated in the very beginning, Natalie Portman absolutely was made for this role. Both physically and emotionally, she was so well fit for it. It’s easily one of my favorite female roles ever, particularly in a non-fiction/biographical movie. I also really liked Caspar Phillipson as JFK. He didn’t have much screen time, but his presence was known. His physical likeness is superb. One person I wasn’t a huge fan of was RFK. No disrespect to Peter Sarsgaard, but he definitely wasn’t fit for it. He didn’t have the voice or physical likeness at all. Moving on, the score was probably my favorite part of the whole movie. It was ominous and tragic, yet somewhat hauntingly beautiful. It fits the tone and mood of the film PERFECTLY. The strings especially. Overall, this movie was great, though there were a few little things I would’ve changed. I’d definitely recommend it to all history fans. This film is officially Berry Approved, so go watch it now!