Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Jackie Blu-ray Movie Review

Jackie, we hardly knew ye.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 7, 2017

The horror of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 was ameliorated, as much as anything like that can be ameliorated, by the steely resolve and incredible reserve of his widow, then of course known as Jacqueline Kennedy (Natalie Portman). Jackie’s grace under imaginable pressure somehow served as a model to countless Americans (and global citizens, in fact) that “we” were going to make it through this tragedy, somehow. The remarkable thing about this sad chapter in the United States’ often tempestuous history is that Jackie had been seen as a rather “soft” figure up to this moment, an undeniably stylish and intelligent woman who nonetheless spoke in a near whisper a lot of the time and who didn’t seem especially fond of being in any kind of spotlight. That reticence about revealing herself is at full play in Jackie, which uses the foundation of Jacqueline Kennedy’s now famous post-assassination Life Magazine interview to set up what amounts to almost a deconstruction of a traditional “biopic”. An unnamed Journalist (Billy Crudup), obviously modeled on Theodore H. White, arrives at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port a short while after the killing, interviewing Jackie for what will be her first public comments about anything, let alone the horrifying public execution of her husband, since November 22. While the film’s structure purposely shuffles and skews events non-chronologically, the bulk of the film’s narrative deals with the immediate aftermath of the death, with Jackie handling everything from funeral arrangements to informing her two very young children that their father has had to “go to heaven” (as the film has her term it).

There’s a bit of probably intentional subterfuge lurking just beneath the surface of Jackie’s screenplay by Noah Oppenheim. Oppenheim, previously best known for two films rather far removed from Jackie territory, The Maze Runner and Allegiant, sets up a somewhat precarious sparring match between Jackie and the Journalist, something that in “real life” wasn’t the case, since White was a life long friend of the Kennedy family, had already written The Making of the President 1960, and was in fact reportedly asked for specifically by Jacqueline Kennedy to write a reputation saving reminiscence of her husband. That said, the back and forth between the film’s Jackie and the Journalist gives the film a rather tart dialectic at times, as Jackie moves from sadness to defiance to a rather wistful nostalgia.

The film visits some familiar iconography, including the now unforgettable pink suit and pillbox hat Jackie wore on that fateful day in November 1963, while it shuffles back and forth between the day of the assassination and the following couple of days as frenetic plans for the State Funeral were being plotted. Also detailed at seemingly random intervals are perhaps more fanciful interchanges Jackie has with a Priest (John Hurt) while trying to find an appropriate final resting place for her late husband at Arlington National Cemetery (a quick allusion to strife with Rose Kennedy, played by Georgie Glen, arises when Rose wants JFK buried in Brookline). Perhaps just a bit oddly, though obviously redolent of Jackie wish that the Kennedy Era be remembered as a modern Camelot, are interstitials supposedly culled from Jackie’s 1962 tour of the White House done for CBS Television (actual footage of long shots and audio of host Charles Collingswood from the real special is utilized).

The elegiac ambience of the film makes it a melancholy experience from the get go, and Oppenheim’s screenplay rather deftly delves the emotional trauma suffered not just by Jackie, but by Bobby Kennedy (Peter Sarsgaard) as well. A couple of other needless conflicts are shoehorned into the proceedings, though, including allusions to frictions between Jackie and President Johnson (John Carroll Lynch) and Lady Bird Johnson (Beth Grant), something that may have at least a basis in historical fact, as well as a kind of peculiar portrayal of Jack Valenti (Max Casella) as a guy who confronts both Bobby and Jackie at various points, seemingly for no other reason than to inject a little melodrama into the proceedings.

A couple of extraneous vignettes don’t really land as well as might be hoped, including a patently weird montage of “dress up” Jackie undertakes in the emotional undertow created by the assassination. But generally speaking Jackie plies some very real feeling emotional territory and buoyed by a really fiercely intimate portrayal by Portman (who has Jackie’s whisper quiet voice down pat), the film manages to really deliver some powerful moments. While it’s evident that director Pablo Larrain probably wanted to chip away at the Camelot mythos, perhaps unavoidably the pure glamor and grace of Jacqueline Kennedy makes the film unavoidably reflective of a seemingly picture perfect oasis in the otherwise roiling world of American politics.

Jackie Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Jackie is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.66:1. There are a couple of perhaps subliminal "aspects" (including ratio) to Jackie that evoke a vintage feeling. The 1.66:1 aspect ratio is part of that (the interstitials supposedly documenting the CBS special are closer to Academy Ratio, as can be seen in a couple of the screenshots accompanying this review), but this entry was shot on 16mm (Super 16), something that was done perhaps to help the (relatively little) archival footage of things like the State Funeral blend in more seamlessly, or perhaps simply to give an "old time" or even newsreel feel to things. The palette has also been toyed with variously, with some sequences, like the bright autumn outdoor shots in Dallas, resonating quite vividly and accurately, and others, notably some of the Hyannis Port interview segments, skewed considerably cooler, with a look that almost resembles slightly faded color home movies. The smaller format means detail and especially fine detail probably aren't quite at the levels that digital capture would have afforded, but things like the pill on Jackie's iconic pink suit are precise looking. The increased graininess and fuzziness of the 16mm source leads to some yellow chunkiness quite a bit of the time and some compression hurdles are encountered at various moments (see screenshot 14, among other examples). With an understanding of the source format, this is generally an appealing if occasionally slightly problematic presentation.

Jackie Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Jackie's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track provides good support for Mica Levi's Academy Award nominated string drenched score, but surround activity is somewhat limited, relegated to elements like the ambient environmental sounds when the film ventures out of doors or in some of the more crowded scenes, like the arrival of the Kennedys to a boisterous crowd in Dallas. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.

Jackie Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• From Jackie to Camelot (1080p; 22:25) is an above average EPK with some decent interviews.


• Gallery (1080p; 2:40) features both an Auto Advance and a Manual Advance option. The timing is for the Auto Advance option.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:38)

Note: Kind of oddly, a commentary is reportedly evidently available on the download version of this, but is not on the Blu-ray disc.

Jackie Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Natalie Portman, as elegantly beautiful as she undeniably is, doesn't really resemble Jacqueline Kennedy all that much, but she delivers a sterling performance here, capturing Kennedy's unforgettable speech patterns and creating a totally believable "character" throughout the film. Some of the sidebars Jackie gets in to are arguably needlessly melodramatic (after all, the film's basic subject matter is pretty melodramatic on its face), but Noah Oppenheim's screenplay is a fascinating deconstruction of traditional biopic tropes. The film boasts a really interesting aesthetic courtesy of its 16mm source format, and Mica Levi's score is also a real standout. Highly recommended.