Review of Jackie (2016) by Ginak — 26 Dec 2016

Natalie Portman gives an amazing and very moving performance in this film. She does not mimic Jackie Kennedy. She convincingly becomes “Jackie,” illuminates her personality, and leads us all through the horror of the Kennedy assassination yet again and shows us her grief and what we today would call PTSD.

But a second aspect is more difficult. Can you really appreciate this film if you didn’t live through the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the period of national mourning afterwards? I found this to be a beautiful, sensitive, and deeply moving film that also gave me a different perspective on American History in both its glory and its violence and also on the human beings who have inhabited the People’s House (the White House) before and after the Kennedy era.