Film: Jackie

The Funeral Planner; it’s not as much fun as the Wedding Planner.Jackie depicts the days following the assassination of JFK. The only smiles come from the interlaced clips from the filming of the ‘Inside the Whitehouse’ documentary filmed in 1962.We  see his widows poise and her meltdowns while being evicted from her home and becoming a single mother all while planning the biggest funeral the western world had ever known.What struck me most was how much of the film Jackie was presented as being alone. I do feel in reality she would have been surrounded by family and friends (as would most of us) but the film sidesteps that to emphasise her loneliness during this time.Help comes in the form of her assistant Nancy although nobody knows who the woman closest to the First Lady is. A relative? Random staff member? A poignant moment was seeing John Hurt play her priest.Even during this time, Mrs JFK is shown as being image conscious with the world’s eyes on her. She insists on keeping the blood splattered pink suit on despite (in spite of) ‘the world’s press outside’. The film tells off the assignation through her eyes as she tells the story to a reporter, who is forbidden to say she smokes or has those meltdowns.Jackie O, as my generation knows her was one of my style icons for sure. I always pictured her with an Alice band but that must have been in a figment of my imagination as there isn’t a single picture of her wearing one on the web. I’ll still wear one though. There is a telling shot in the film as Jackie realises what an icon she has become when she is driven past a shop with Jackie mannequins. On a side note, it’s interesting how many airports, roads and buildings are named after JFK considering. He was president for just a couple of years and yet a fair amount of good happened, especially around civil rights, ending segregation and equal rights.Do you have to be assassinated to leave a real legacy? It was something Mrs Kennedy is deemed to have to have been keen to uphold.7½/10@RickieWrites