Jackie

As someone who can recite Oliver Stone's JFK back to front, I was initially skeptical of just what this movie was going to be about. I mean no disrespect to perhaps the most famous first lady of all time, but it always struck me as making a film about Caesar's wife instead of Caesar. It's true that no feature film has ever really dealt with Jackie as central subject matter, so I guess it makes sense that way. I mean if you can make films with Jack Ruby (Ruby) or Abraham Zapruder (Parkland) as central characters why not the First Lady? Portman's hypnotic performance is certainly praise worthy. She's so good with that whispery voice in fact that at times you could find yourself being lulled to sleep. I was also a fan of director Pablo Larrain and cinematographer Stephane Fontaine's claustrophobic shooting style, Jackie like the audience, barely has room to breath and it is very effective. The problem, like I feared, is that this movie isn't really about anything concrete. It has no foundation other than Portman's skilled mimicry, and no real focus. Gimme JFK any day and twice on Sunday.