Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

Jackie
2016
**
Director: Pablo Larrain
Cast: Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup, John Hurt, Richard E. Grant, Caspar Phillipson, John Carroll Lynch

The good news is that this is not a conventional and linear biopic of Jacqueline "Jackie" Kennedy. The bad news is that Noah Oppenheim's scrambled screenplay, which focuses on the days before, during and after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, never translates into a captivating drama. Jackie attempts to come to terms with her personal tragedy, but the events on the screen feel more philosophical than personal. The decision to dwell on the gory details of the JFK shooting is a gross misjudgment, as far as I am concerned. Although Natalie Portman is commanding in the lead, her vocal performance is distractingly unnatural. Mica Levi's monotonous score drowns out the dialogue in almost every scene.