I watched the movie "Jackie" last night which stars Natalie Portman (Jackie), Peter Sarsgaard (Robert Kennedy) and.......Paul Newport (Peter Lawford), the British actor who married Pat Kennedy.
Paul's walk-on role came through Central Casting and was filmed some time last year in Washington D.C. Paul tells me that he appears twice in the movie but I only saw him once in the funeral cortege to the left of Robert Kennedy and Jackie (above).
I took the photos with my iPhone while the DVD was on "pause" so they are very grainy but you get the general idea. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, Paul got to spend two hours with Portman and Sarsgaard during make up and found them both charming. He also met one of his favorite actors, Richard Grant, on the set so he was pretty chuffed on both counts.
Click on "Read more" below for more photos
I have to say that I was not very fond of the movie itself. Natalie Portman and Peter Sarsgaard are the two principal actors and totally marvelous, as was the whole production. However, the story itself was all over the place, and at the end of it you had to wonder exactly what it was about.
It deals with the short period after Kennedy's assassination when Jackie is consumed by grief, packing up the White House to make way for the incoming Johnsons, arranging the funeral, and later, being interviewed by a reporter on the Kennedy estate in Massachusetts, and her attempts to create or "spin" the whole Camelot story (according to the movie).
It is not a flattering portrait of Jackie and the film is interspersed with flashbacks to the assassination, the awful flight home with Kennedy's body, the "happy" days in the White House with Jack, and hints of his infidelities and betrayals with which she had to live.
There are several scenes of her talking to a Catholic priest (John Hurt) about the cruelty of life, her despair and praying every night to die. Natalie Portman does a brilliant job of conveying grief, anger and despair all rolled into one. The priest's lame answers and attempts to console her somehow rob these scenes of any drama. In fact, now that I come to think of it there were few moments of real drama in the movie. It tended to sleepwalk its way through events which were highly dramatic in real life. Strange.
If there is a story line, it is poorly told. You are left with the feeling that the whole Camelot myth was created by Jackie to preserve Kennedy's legacy and that she manipulated the reporter (Billy Crudup) who was being given an exclusive story. I don't think the film adds anything to our knowledge of Jackie and may actually do a great disservice to a woman who who lost everything but acted with great dignity throughout an event which traumatized the nation.
I don't know what Paul's take on the movie was but I am sure that he would look at it in the context of two powerful performances by Natalie Portman and Peter Sarsgaard which were impeccable.
Anyway, Paul had a good time making the movie and he gets paid whether I like the movie or not!!
POSTSRCIPT
About an hour after I wrote this, the Oscar nominations were announced. I was delighted to see that Natalie Portman had been nominated for Best Actress for her role as Jackie. As I mentioned above, she was marvelous; and I only wish the story had been more coherent, had a point or gave some new insight into a period that has been pretty well chronicled to death. Good luck, Natalie!
Paul's walk-on role came through Central Casting and was filmed some time last year in Washington D.C. Paul tells me that he appears twice in the movie but I only saw him once in the funeral cortege to the left of Robert Kennedy and Jackie (above).
I took the photos with my iPhone while the DVD was on "pause" so they are very grainy but you get the general idea. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, Paul got to spend two hours with Portman and Sarsgaard during make up and found them both charming. He also met one of his favorite actors, Richard Grant, on the set so he was pretty chuffed on both counts.
Click on "Read more" below for more photos
It deals with the short period after Kennedy's assassination when Jackie is consumed by grief, packing up the White House to make way for the incoming Johnsons, arranging the funeral, and later, being interviewed by a reporter on the Kennedy estate in Massachusetts, and her attempts to create or "spin" the whole Camelot story (according to the movie).
It is not a flattering portrait of Jackie and the film is interspersed with flashbacks to the assassination, the awful flight home with Kennedy's body, the "happy" days in the White House with Jack, and hints of his infidelities and betrayals with which she had to live.
There are several scenes of her talking to a Catholic priest (John Hurt) about the cruelty of life, her despair and praying every night to die. Natalie Portman does a brilliant job of conveying grief, anger and despair all rolled into one. The priest's lame answers and attempts to console her somehow rob these scenes of any drama. In fact, now that I come to think of it there were few moments of real drama in the movie. It tended to sleepwalk its way through events which were highly dramatic in real life. Strange.
The filming of the funeral: courtesy justjared.com
If there is a story line, it is poorly told. You are left with the feeling that the whole Camelot myth was created by Jackie to preserve Kennedy's legacy and that she manipulated the reporter (Billy Crudup) who was being given an exclusive story. I don't think the film adds anything to our knowledge of Jackie and may actually do a great disservice to a woman who who lost everything but acted with great dignity throughout an event which traumatized the nation.
I don't know what Paul's take on the movie was but I am sure that he would look at it in the context of two powerful performances by Natalie Portman and Peter Sarsgaard which were impeccable.
Anyway, Paul had a good time making the movie and he gets paid whether I like the movie or not!!
POSTSRCIPT
About an hour after I wrote this, the Oscar nominations were announced. I was delighted to see that Natalie Portman had been nominated for Best Actress for her role as Jackie. As I mentioned above, she was marvelous; and I only wish the story had been more coherent, had a point or gave some new insight into a period that has been pretty well chronicled to death. Good luck, Natalie!
Excellent, dad! I think you nail that. I surprisingly liked the movie (I wasn't looking forward to it really). I don't look at movies as deeply as you do. I'm only looking at colors and anything that flashes. But I do agree with the your thought that it is all over the place. And I really couldn't stand the whole Camelot thing. Camelot is a place for knights and round tables. It's English. NOT American!!
ReplyDeleteVery cool for Paul!! Congratulations.
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