Jackie

Jackie

Directed by Pablo Larrain

USA, 2016

HOME, 2 February 2017

A film portraying Jackie Kennedy as widow.

She is in confessional mode, baring her soul to a journalist and then a priest. Her grief is immense yet she orchestrates JFK’s funeral, thereby doing more than anyone to create the image of the president who died young, too young.

Personally, I like politicians who are realists: Johnson got more done and did more good (pace Robert A Caro’s magisterial biography) than JFK, albeit he had more time. Where you have idealists you will find a pretty facade and an adroit publicity machine and very little substance. And consider: The Bay of Pigs, an escalation of the Vietnam war (perhaps the cause of the assassination), that was all on JFK’s watch.

Natalie Portman is very good here; she makes the film.