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Jackie | 2016 | R | - 2.5.5

After the assassination of her husband, President John F. Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy (Natalie Portman) must face her grief while maintaining the decorum of being First Lady and the compassion of being a mother to her two young children. Also with Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup, John Hurt, Richard E. Grant, Caspar Phillipson, Beth Grant, John Carroll Lynch and Max Casella. Directed by Pablo Larraín. A few lines of dialogue are spoken in Spanish with English subtitles. [1:39]

SEX/NUDITY 2 - A woman showers and we see her bare shoulders, back and upper chest. A woman undresses to a slip (cleavage and legs are seen). Women wearing low-cut evening gowns are seen at a formal dance event and a concert (cleavage is visible). A woman wears a nightgown that reveals some cleavage.
 Men and women dance at a formal event and one couple hugs closely and touch their foreheads together. A man and a woman hug.
 A woman talks about not being with her husband much (implication of a lack of intimacy). A woman talks about some people wanting power in the world and others wanting power in bed.

VIOLENCE/GORE 5 - A woman recounts the moments of her husband's assassination several times and we see flashbacks with varying degrees of detail: A man in a convertible car grabs his neck and we understand that he had been shot (no blood is seen), the man is struck by another bullet and we see part of the top of his head blow off and a lot of blood as he slumps into a woman's lap and she scrambles to pick up pieces of matter from the trunk of the car and she says that she tried to hold his head together; she describes a piece of her husband's skull flying off and he slumped in her lap and there was blood and brains in her lap, and then, "I knew he was dead" (we do not see anything accompanying the description); we hear the sound of a gun discharging and what sounds like the bullet entering a person's skull and see blood and matter splattered on the trunk of a car and on a woman's face; she says that there was one shot and then another and she says, "There was so much blood everywhere, there were so many pieces," and "I tried to hold his head together" (we don't see anything); a secret Service person describes the events of the day John Kennedy was shot and killed to a woman.
 A woman cries inconsolably as she wipes blood and matter off her face and hair; we see blood and matter on her suit jacket and skirt during several scenes before she changes her clothes. We see a lot of blood on a woman's stockings as she removes them.
 A TV news report shows a man in handcuffs walking through a crowded area and we hear a gunshot (we understand that the man was shot dead, but do not see it).
 A woman tells her two young children that their father won't be coming back and that a very bad man hurt him. We understand that a woman had a miscarriage and an infant son died. A woman becomes agitated when trying to select a burial place for her dead husband in Arlington Cemetery. A man and a woman argue about the woman putting her children at risk by being very public. A woman yells at a man and storms out of his office.
 A woman appears frightened when walking through a large number of people gathered to greet her and her husband. A woman sits on an airplane next to a coffin containing her dead husband. A woman showers and we see streaks of blood wash down her back from her hair. A woman charges toward a room where an autopsy is being performed on her husband and she is stopped at the door by another man (we see medical staff and the legs of a body on a gurney. A woman struggles to remove her wedding ring after her husband died.
 A funeral is held and we see a woman, two small children and a man gathered around a coffin draped with an American flag; the wife of the dead man walks around the coffin as she cries. A coffin is taken off a plane and placed into a hearse. We see the coffins of a man and two small children being lowered into the ground.
 TV news reports show Lee Harvey Oswald in handcuffs and reports ask him about killing President Kennedy, which he denies. We hear that there has been a threat against Charles De Gaulle.
 A woman's faith is shaken after the death of her husband and she speaks to a priest at length about God. A woman talks to a reporter about what she is going to do next after her husband has been assassinated. A woman appears nervous about a television broadcast where she will guide a tour of the White House. A woman talks about a man having died in battle. A woman asks a man on a security detail what he through the caliber of the bullet that killed her husband was. A man talks about President Lincoln's funeral procession. A man tells a woman, "You should take the children and disappear. Build a fortress and never look back." A woman says, "Lincoln's widow died destitute." A woman says, "I think God is cruel." A woman talks about the pain a man was in. A priest tells a woman about a parable about Jesus and a blind man. A woman says, "I wanted to die." A woman says, "I prayed to die." A woman says that a man suffered from scarlet fever as a child.
 A 3 year old boy wears a holster and handles a toy pistol at his birthday party.

LANGUAGE 5 - At least 2 F-words, 1 mild obscenity, name-calling (bitter man, fool, silly little communist, crude, barbarians, ridiculous), 2 religious profanities (GD), 4 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh God, Thank God, Jesus).

SUBSTANCE USE - A woman gathers a number of prescription vials and we see pills spread out on a table and she swallows a pill (it's not clear what they are). A woman drinks what could be vodka alone and seems distraught, and a woman drinks wine with a meal. A woman smokes cigarettes in several scenes in indoor and outdoor settings including in bed and in the Oval Office, and men smoke cigarettes in many scenes throughout the movie in indoor and outdoor settings, including on an airplane.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Assassination, President John F. Kennedy, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Vietnam, Bay of Pigs, grief, artifacts, identity, beauty, wealth and privilege, royalty, fear, fame, communism, slavery, civil war, civil rights, space program, Fidel Castro, vanity, tradition, being First Lady, relationship between government and the arts, faith, guilt, Cold War, defense, foreign policy, Lee Harvey Oswald, President McKinley, President Garfield, Camelot, fairy tales, secrets, truth, sympathy, legacy of presidents killed in office, Gettysburg Address.

MESSAGE - Dealing with the violent death of a loved one, especially when under public scrutiny, is very difficult.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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