Best Actress in a Leading Role 2016: Natalie Portman in Jackie

Natalie Portman received her third Oscar nomination for her performance as Jacqueline Kennedy in Jackie.

Jackie is a terrific film about Jacqueline Kennedy's battle with grief and her struggle to define her husband's legacy in the four days following his assassination. Pablo Larraìn makes this movie as far as possible from a conventional biopic, and therefore creates an incredibly intimate and profound movie that is not at all a glorification but rather a layered, deep character study and an interesting reflection about the power of image we give and the legacy we leave behind. I particularly loved the editing, with the scenes being placed in a scattered sequence that makes the movie like a haunting collection of memories, Mica Levi's thrilling, vibrant score and the stunningly accurate costumes. 

In order to better review her performance, I'll review her performance considering the scenes in chronological order even if, as I mentioned above, that's not the order they are shown in the movie. Natalie Portman is neither an actress I particularly like nor one I particularly dislike - I think she has the capacity of being really great but she's also given her fair share of poor performances. I was actually quite worried about her performance in this movie as it is a very tricky performance that relies a lot on mannerisms and the accent and that could have easily come off as a disaster. But Portman proves to be completely up to the challenge delivering an absolutely masterful performance in which she perfectly recreates Jacqueline Kennedy's public persona without ever making her portrayal  feel like a cheap imitation, but importantly she gives a truly compelling, complex and sensitive characterization of this rather extraordinary woman. The few scenes prior to the assassination are nicely played by Portman who makes the most out of them - Jackie and John Kennedy only have a few brief interactions shown in the movie, yet Portman completely convince us of her love for her husband as she is just radiant whenever she shares the screen with Caspar Phillipson. There is a hint of unhappiness in her portrayal even in those scenes - her close-up during the concert or some brief reactions on her face before getting out of the plane in Dallas suggest an inner plight in Jackie (that is explored further in scenes I will get to later), but at the same time Portman aptly shows that her own suffering does not diminish at all the affection and devotion she feels for her husband. In particular, I love the scene involving the production of "A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy" - Portman is brilliant in these scenes as she makes Jackie the properly appealing, charming and pleasant presence that she is supposed to be but she is also very effective at showing that everything she does and say is a bit of a put on. She delivers her line with grace but also a certain disingenuousness: Portman is terrific at recreating the poise and elegance of the First Lady and I particularly love the way she handles the extremely difficult, half posh, half New Yorker accent - personally I think she nails it and I like how in the public scenes it feels purposefully accentuated while in the more intimate moments it feels far more natural and less thick. 

The scene of the assassination is particularly raw in the movie and it does not hold back anything, and neither does Portman: she is absolutely devastating in her portrayal of every single emotion that goes through Jackie's mind in the scene, from her befuddlement as she hears the first shot, her sudden, instictive reaction to keeping her husband's brains inside of his head, her shock and inability to grasp the situation as she sits there, covered in blood, holding her dead husband... it's a terrifying moment and its emotional impact is due to Portman's performance. The following scenes are just as excellent, especially an emotionally exhausting close-up in which we see a devastated Jackie wiping away the blood from her face - it's such a good scene I felt chills down my spine. But, again, every single scene is a treasure as Portman consistently delivers: she makes the most out of every single look and facial expression in the scene in which she witnesses President Johnson taking the Presidential oath and in the later scenes at the hospital she does a brilliant job at portraying how the still overwhelmed Jacqueline starts to process what happened. The scene in which she comes back home, takes off her clothers soaked in blood and wanders in the empty rooms is heartbreaking because Portman silently conveys so well the loneliness and desolation of this woman. 

I admire the movie because it does not portray Jacqueline Kennedy as always honorable in her suffering: she can be inconsistent and irrational at times and this is exactly why she feels so real, relatable and moving. Portman is excellent at portraying her character's mood swings and achieves some really powerful heights in various moments, such as the scene in which Jackie has to pull herself together and tell her children about their father's death, or her quiet breakdown at her husband's desk. She portrays her character's struggle through grief in such a realistic manner it's even quite hard to watch at times - she lets you so close to the character and makes you so invested in her grief that by the end of the movie you are emotionally shaken too. But what I love the most is that, no matter what, Portman always portrays an underlying resilience and a determination to give her husband a proper send-off and to have him remembered by the people. I love the commanding firmness in her face and voice when she decides the place where to bury her husband, or the iron will behind her fake gentleness when she says to Jack Valenti that she will walk to the burial place during the funeral procession, regardless of the danger. And the scene of the procession is absolutely phenomenal, with Portman embodying so well both the pain and the dignity of the First Lady, silently conveying a whole lot of emotions with just a few glances. 

Portman also works very well with the rest of the cast: she shares some very nice moments with both Peter Sarsgaard, as Robert Kennedy, when the two characters share their mutual pain and she also has a very sweet chemistry with Greta Gerwig as her best friend and secretary; but some of her most impressive moments are with John Hurt as a priest to whom Jackie reveals her deepest fears and feelings. Natalie Portman is just incredible in those scenes as she's at her most raw, naked and emotionally vulnerable: there is absolutely no artifice in those moments but just the pain of a devastated woman who has lost everything that she held dear. Portman is great at portraying with such subtlety and sincerity the emotional fragility of Jacqueline and adding a great deal of complexity to the character as she reflects on her husband's infidelity, her miscarriage and stillborn son in the early stages of her marriage and her doubts and insecurities regarding her future. Portman and Hurt establish a truly poignant connection in those moments that are in many ways the emotional crux of the movie and they handle the dialogue with heartbreaking delicacy. 

Scattered throughout the movies there are the scenes regarding Jacqueline Kennedy's interview with Theodore White a few weeks after her husband's assassination. Portman is phenomenal in these scenes at portraying Jackie going through a different stage of grief: she is apparently more calm and less unpredictable, but she is also far colder and more distant. I love the passive aggressiveness in her exchanges with White but also the piercing, haunting vulnerability behind her eyes: when her embittered, cold façade cracks while she remembers the shooting and she breaks down, Portman is absolutely devastating at showing the pain that will never leave Jackie, but I particularly love how she pulls herself together and coldly utters "Don't think for a second I'll let you publish that". I also really like the chemistry between Portman and Billy Crudup as the two actors does a great job at portraying their growing respect for each other and their last scenes together are quite moving, especially as Jackie talks about her husband's Presidency and compares it to Camelot because you can feel so well Jacqueline's loyalty and pride in Portman's voice ("There will never be another Camelot").

Natalie Portman's performance in this movie is nothing short of amazing. She delivers a simply mesmerizing characterization in an extremely difficult role, nailing the accent and the posture but being even better at portraying her character's shattered soul. It's a truly brilliant performance in a great movie and one that does not lose its emotional power even after repeated viewings.

5/5