Grade: B
There is an affecting and fascinating gloominess that permeates the new Jackie Kennedy biopic Jackie, which is one of the better biopics I’ve seen in the last few years. Rather than span several years, it focuses on the few days that directly followed the JFK assassination, and has some jarringly and heartbreakingly forthright dialogue and footage of the parade/shooting itself. Though it bounces back and forth between flashbacks and the “present,” it never feels herky-jerky. The through-line is clear, consistent, and cohesive. Along with Lion, Jackie’s score is my other favorite of the year. The theme that plays near the end sounds distractingly like the last part of The Avett Brothers’ Salina, but hey, I like that song too, so it’s forgivable. Carrying the movie is a tour-de-force performance from Natalie Portman as Jackie, who succeeds in giving us both an authentic imitation of the real life person, and a fleshed-out character that she totally owns. I remarked at the beginning of the year that they should just go ahead and give Emma Stone the Oscar, but now I’d be equally as happy if it instead went to Portman.
There are no captions at the end of the film, that would normally be there to tell us what ends up happening to everybody, because for one reason or another, the filmmakers didn’t feel like showing us. Those blasted captions turn up at the end of most biopics, so I was glad to be graced with their non-presence here. If we want to know more about these people beyond what we’re shown, we can just look it up later. It’s so refreshing not to be spoon-fed a forced epilogue.
Grade: B
Film Reviews by Mark 
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