Starring Natalie Portman, Billy Crudup, Greta Gerwig, John Hurt, Richard E. Grant, John Carrol Lynch

(7-Very Good Film)

Unique. Elegant. Slight.

Biopics rarely feel as fresh as this film about former First Lady and JFK’s widow Jackie Kennedy, but by concentrating on a seminal period of her life-the days following her husband’s assassination- rather than trying to capture a lifetime in the length of a movie, Jackie works as a unique look at key intimate moments behind the scenes. Things like showering off her husband’s blood, telling her kids that their father won’t be coming home, moving from the white house, etc. Natalie Portman’s performance-her beauty and her interpretation of the First Lady’s manner of speech-illuminate the film. The score, by Mica Levi, is eerie and beautiful. Suggested by the film’s title, Jackie wants you to feel like you knew her on a first-name basis.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(697)