One particular Christmas—a handful of years back—my mom and I saw seven films in theater during the few days before Christmas. The following year, the same thing happened. I won’t claim that going to the movie theater several times in the week leading up to Christmas is a tradition. However, I will say that for years now I have associated the movie theaters with the Christmas season.
(Now that I’m pursuing a career in the film industry, every day is a Christmas of sorts since every day involves storytelling/film + television to some capacity!)
I saw Jackie the other day, and it was fantastic. For a few moments, I began to feel as if it might disappoint my high expectations. When the reporter shows up to the home to interview Jackie (Natalie Portman), I wasn’t sure what route the plot might take. I was pleasantly surprised.
Natalie Portman’s voice is an eerie whisper catapulting the audience back in time. Her recollections as Jackie are seamlessly adopted from history into an honest depiction of both truth and fiction, which recalls a moment in time that shook the nation – though, most importantly, shook a wife and woman to her core. Jackie was a Kennedy by marriage – however, the film stands firm in the idea that apart from the last name, Jackie remained very much her own person.
She was a creative, deep thinking woman, with imperfections she could come to gracefully accept. She was forgiving, persevering, and capable of the utmost selflessness. More than that, the film paints the picture of a Jackie ravished by grief, raw with conflict between preserving her husband’s legacy and continuing on with her own.
As the funeral draws near, the camera sits closer and closer to the faces of characters, bumping the anxiety level up notch by notch until the only sense of relief that can be found is in Jackie’s exit of the White House, as well as in the gentle hum of One Brief Shining Moment from Camelot. Each picture is framed with a graininess to it, which first parallels the graininess of actual footage, and, secondly, parallels Jackie's passion for preserving history (even if one chooses which parts of history to preserve).
The film is a raw portrayal of a very real woman’s loss. It’s simultaneously a raw portrayal of the side effects of grief – the feeling of wanting to die because the pain is insurmountable, and—more strongly—the instinctual feeling of needing to press on. Jackie was a quietly strong woman with big ideas and love to give. She was also very much human, and a survivor of fatal circumstance, rejection, infidelity, and loss.
That’s what I got out of the film, anyhow.
What films are you looking forward to this holiday season?
I’m hoping to catch Nocturnal Animals, La La Land, Manchester by the Sea, Sing, Rogue One, and Silence as soon as I can!
