Sunday 23 July 2017

JACKIE

«««
Fox Searchlight

Was expecting a tense psychological character-study but got reportage instead. You can’t replace the former with swoopy camera-angles and slidey violins. And you can’t empathise with a person about whom by the closing credits you know nothing. Portman’s emaciated face jars with the moon-like visage of her subject. One wonders if starvation has stilted her performance. Overlong, overdrawn and teeth-grindingly repetitious; why do modern directors weaken a story by eking it out for as long as possible! I’ve often considered the genius of Hitchcock is that he knows how to let the audience do the work. The greatest image here is the infamously bloodied dress, slowly revealed, a carefully constructed picture destroyed by its literal explanation. But even watching this, I couldn’t escape the knowledge of the ever more terrible events that have happened since and that continue to happen today. Constantly reminded of Jackie’s creed and detachment, and little else, this film doesn’t allow it.




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