Review of Jackie (2016) by Ken J — 04 Feb 2017

Jackie is a painful and mesmerizing masterpiece, and it's quite possibly the best film of 2016. It's impossible to imagine any other actress portraying this role so perfectly; carrying the weight of a story about the inhumanity of celebrity, the chaos of grief, and the uncertainty of one's legacy.

If Natalie Portman doesn't win the Oscar, she certainly deserves it. In addition to the performances, Pablo Larrain's direction, with its unrelenting close-ups, places us in the middle of our protagonist's pain; and never before has a film's musical score been so important and affective.

Then if that weren't enough, to top it all off, the priestly wisdom of John Hurt's performance towards the end of the film is bittersweet but nonetheless timely and entirely appropriate.