Jackie
starring Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup and John Hurt
written by Noah Oppenheim
directed by Pablo Larrain
Rating: ♦♦♦◊◊
This is a biographical drama in which Jackie Kennedy, played by Natalie Portman, tells the story of her life immediately after the assassination of her husband in November 1963. The film follows Jackie Kennedy in the days when she was First Lady in the White House and her life immediately following the assassination. It is framed around four historical events: the CBS television network show “A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy” (produced by Perry Wolff and directed by Franklin Shaffner, featuring CBS correspondent Charles Collingwood, originally broadcast on February 14, 1962); the President’s assassination in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963; the state funeral in Washington, D.C. on November 25, 1963; and the Theodore H. White’s Life magazine interview with the widow at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts at the end of November of 1963.
I found the film to be slow and stiff. I didn’t like Natalie Portman’s attempt at Jackie’s accent. It sounded like she was trying to talk while simultaneously holding her breath. But after researching Jaqueline Kennedy’s English accent I guess Portman did okay. I admit that I didn’t know much about Jackie Kennedy’s English. I assumed she had a Boston accent like many of the Kennedys. So, I went to Youtube and watched the 1-hour “A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy” so I could listen to her. It was a strange accent that I’ve read is an old-time New York accent featuring “non-rhoticity” (where people drop their R’s). Jaqueline Bouvier, born and raised in Southampton, New York, came from an affluent family. During her time - from her childhood in the ’30s into her adulthood - upper-class individuals in the Northeast exhibited certain speech patterns, often taught in expensive private schools, that combined elements of British English and American English, resulting in what is sometimes called a “prestige” accent, also known as Mid-Atlantic prestige accent, characterized by a distinct pronunciation that sounds like a mix between British and American English.
After that, I re-watched film of the assassination on Youtube. I watched a documentary on the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald, and then I watched a 1-hour Youtube movie of the state funeral itself on November 25, 1963, comparing the Oppenheim movie to historical reality.
I didn’t like Peter Sarsgaard’s portrayal of Bobby Kennedy. Journalist Theodore White was played by Billy Crudup (an unfortunate name). I’ve seen Billy Crudup in other roles and he always gives me the creeps. His voice and face, his speech pattern, his posture and body language. Creepy. There was a lot a didn’t like.
What I did like was the portrayal of the Kennedys as real humans, not perfect people, and the highly emotional preparation of a widow with two young children for her own husband’s funeral. Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as President in Dallas very quickly, so there was already a new President and First Lady in place while Jackie was still occupying the White House. That means that in addition to the emotion surrounding a dead father, husband and leader is administration power being wielded - quietly and slowly at first, but inevitably. Government doesn’t stop, administration doesn’t stall. Everybody wants something. The widow wants her husband. The public want to know details and they want to mourn with Jackie. The new President wants to insert his own staff into the offices of power. Finally, the widow has to buck against the new administration’s security wishes in order to cement her husband’s reputation in history. She succeeded, but it wasn’t easy.