Why leave the comfort of your home to go and see a film that has a storyline you are familiar with? I didn’t see Sully about the ‘plane that crash landed without loss of life on the Hudson River in 2009. I have been to Jackie, although the story is even more familiar.
The genre is bio-pic but it is only about a few weeks after JFK’s assassination. Natalie Portman, as Jacqueline Kennedy, carries the film. She is in almost every shot conveying a range of emotions in a voice uncannily like Jackie Kennedy’s. On YouTube there is a fifty-five minute documentary that the real Jackie Kennedy made for American TV in which she gives a tour of the White House. Portman studied this and a later TV interview as well as reading a slew of biographies. She gives an overwhelmingly convincing portrayal of the grieving widow and her emotions at such a tragic but highly-charged time towards her husband and his place in America’s history.
It is an immensely powerful and compelling performance. Portman shows Jackie’s hopes, fears, insecurities with Shakespearean virtuosity. It is in fact a Shakespearean tragedy that unfolds on the screen. Portman is not just wholly convincing but drew me into her loneliness and desperation. She dominates the screen for a hundred minutes.
The rest of the cast are unimportant except for John Hurt who plays a Catholic priest talking to Jackie about God and His purpose. This, I suppose imagined, conversation allows an exploration of another side of Jackie’s character. The film is a masterpiece and I expect will have a stage adaptation. Its power would resonate even more strongly on the stage than it does on screen.
Minor possible correction …. word on the street is that Sully is very good – yes it is the chap who drops a plane in the Hudson – but apparently the majority of the film is about the nasty attempt to vilify him for not flying it back to the airport …. well worth a look ?
As usual I shot from the hip and drew the wrong conclusion, so thank you Angus. Maybe I will be able to watch it on a flight? And as usual you are a perceptive reader; the pigeon poo around the bird feeders is becoming a bore, as you predicted.
Sully is indeed a very fine film, with some superb acting by Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart as the flight deck crew. Another triumphant one man (or two in this instance) take on the world movie by Clint.
Just seen Jackie, on your recommendation (it was that or Machester By The Sea); a very clever film which tells several stories, but does nothing to improve Mrs Kennedy’s place in history. We must be due for a movie on LBJ, a very interesting man (apart from his handling of his dogs)?