The new bio-pic Jackie from director Pablo Larrain doesn't ask where you were when the "Camelot" presidency of John Fitzgerald Kennedy ended abruptly on a beautiful fall day in Dallas, Texas. Instead, Jackie imagines what it must have been like for first lady Jacqueline Kennedy when the sound of three bullets shattered her regal world forever. Told in an elaborate series of flashbacks, Jackie reconstructs the moment when for many Americans "the 60s" truly began, a never-ending series of "Future Shocks."
The creators of this smart, sensitive, beautifully lensed film don't attempt to cover its subject's spectacular life arc, her privileged childhood, her talent for learning languages, or her love of horses. Instead, Jackie zeroes in on the crucial hours of the Dallas motorcade and the assassination. Many viewers will be motivated to do their own homework about details not covered in the film.
Among the sources I recommend are Robert Caro's magisterial biography The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Vol. 4, The Passage of Power, in which the author shows the lengths to which the new president went to ensure that his legitimacy as Kennedy's successor was bolstered by the presence of JFK's widow standing next to him during his swearing-in ceremony aboard Air Force One. She was attired in the now-famous pink outfit, splattered with her husband's blood and brain tissue.
Director Larrain clinches the film's emotional appeal by detailing the origins of the post-assassination meme that the 1,000 days of Kennedy's presidency represented a modern respinning of the myth of Camelot. "Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief, shining moment, that was known as Camelot." Natalie Portman as Jackie drives home the point in a chat with a Life magazine reporter (Billy Crudup). "There'll be great presidents again, but there will never be another Camelot."
Jackie succeeds thanks to a top-flight cast, beginning with the Israeli-born Portman, whose resume includes the Oscar-winning 2010 dance-world feature Black Swan. The ensemble is rounded out by Peter Sarsgaard as an effective Bobby Kennedy, with whom Jackie argues privately about the funeral arrangements for the slain President (Caspar Phillipson); Gerta Gerwig as Jackie's close friend, Nancy Tuckerman; John Carroll Lynch as LBJ; and Beth Grant as Lady Bird Johnson.
In the end, the film strikes home because of some pithy Jackie speeches, words from a strong-minded woman with two grieving small children, Caroline and John, Jr. "These pictures should record the truth �" two heartbroken, fatherless kids are part of that.
"People like fairy tales. Camelot has been reprinted all over the world. Maybe that's what people will believe now.
"I will not sneak out the back door. I will go out the usual way. We all will."