‘Jackie’ isn’t a date movie, unless you’re dating the wrong person

Taken from Friday’s edition of Seattle’s Morning News on KIRO Radio.

“Jackie” is a film about Jacqueline Kennedy, and of course, it is receiving ecstatic reviews.

I have been trying to figure out why a film this incoherent, and so self-consciously artistic and pretentious is receiving such glowing reviews. A lot of it comes down to the fact that Natalie Portman is sensational. She is a front runner for best actress at the Oscars for this film. It’s a very good performance.

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Also, the film composer will certainly be nominated for best score — a 29-year-old British woman named Mica Levi. The film score is terrific and very effective. So there are moving elements of the film, but they are bound together by a discursive, confessional as Jackie interacts with a journalist or a priest who she is asking what the meaning of it all is.

There is no real plot. If there is, it’s basically that there was a popular young president named John Kennedy and he was shot.

But this film is about Jacqueline Kennedy. She is trying to deal with the assassination of her husband. And it details what it was like for a woman who knew that her husband was involved with things that were not exemplary. There has not been any film with this kind of microscopic focus on Jackie before. There was no demand for another film about Jackie Kennedy. Yet this film is different from any other past rendition. It assumes you know her life story and only looks at 1-2 weeks in her life surrounding the famous assassination.

This is a worthy project and I’m glad that I saw it. It gives a different perspective on the events of those few days. But when I think of how people will feel when they see it — spending $12 and buying popcorn and other treats. By the way, I can’t imagine buying popcorn at this movie that so graphically shows the president’s skull being blown up. In a sense, this film gives the JFK assassination the same treatment as “Passion of the Christ.”

They do a very clever thing to recapture John Kennedy, using a double that looks just like JFK. I actually met President Kennedy — they got it exactly right. And they use John Kennedy’s actual voice. They don’t have the actor speaking. They are able to make that work brilliantly.

But as I previously indicated, there is a reason why the film has an R rating. People who are sensitive should not see this movie. You have never seen the assassination on screen like in “Jackie.” They set up a camera in front of the president and Jackie, and they show the shooting in slow motion as the bullets come down. You see his face, and the back of his head blowing off. You then see Jackie trying to pick up his splattered brains and put them back into the skull.

This is a skillful movie. But this is perhaps the most depressing movie of the year. It will probably be nominated for best picture, certainly best actress and musical score. But don’t let that lead you to believe it will be a great time at the movies. “Jackie” is many things. But a date movie it isn’t, unless you are dating the wrong person.

I give it 2.5 out of 4 stars because it does have some qualities to boast. But overall, it does not add up to a great movie.

Taken from Friday’s edition of Seattle’s Morning News on KIRO Radio.

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