Praise of Jackie from Critics

Jackie will open today with high praise from the LA and New York Times. Manohla Dargis writes:

The film takes Jackie’s cunning and dissimulations as much for granted as it does her elegance and love of couture. Put differently, it takes her personhood for granted, which may be why Mr. Larraín shows all the snot, tears and blood, all the desperate bodily mess. In “Jackie,” Kennedy’s body — the object of obsessive inquiries — is replaced by hers in a kind of symbolic transfiguration as she assumes the role of his dignified representative, the guardian of a shining legacy. The assassination was a national and personal tragedy, one which she answered with a myth which was an act of radical will and sovereignty. She married John F. Kennedy; she also helped invent him.

And Kenneth Turan:

Finally, however, it is the powerful collaboration of star Portman and director Larraín, their determination to make this story their own, that has made all the difference. At the film’s world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, I ended up seated directly behind them and, when they took their bows and hugged for photographers, I noticed how extraordinarily tight their embrace was, a mutually intense grasp that seemed to say, “It was not easy, but we did it, we really did it.” And so they have.

And The Wrap’s Claudia Puig:

Casting Natalie Portman, who clearly resembles the iconic first lady, was an inspired choice. Larraín’s dreamy narrative is set in the wake of the shocking assassination of John F. Kennedy (Caspar Phillipson), intercutting the tragic with the prosaic (Jackie’s famous televised tour of the White House) as well as the cathartic (the legendary funeral procession Jackie meticulously planned to honor her husband’s legacy). Her determination to hold a grand funeral like Abraham Lincoln’s put her in conflict with key figures in the administration worried about safety. These sequences are perhaps the film’s most illuminating.

Jackie has been met with mostly positive reviews, but did miss out on a Critics Choice nomination for Best Picture. Whether it makes it in fully with Best Picture and all of the top nominations will have to be seen when the industry has their say a few weeks from now. We do know it’s solid with Actress, Costumes, Production Design, at the very least.