Jackie - 3 nominations

Lead Actress - Natalie Portman
Costume Design - Madeline Fontaine
Original Score - Mica Levi

Jackie follows first lady Jackie Kennedy in the immediate days following her husband's assassination, and her subsequent quest to make sure that his legacy is immortalized in the public mind.  The film is slow, mostly miscast (Peter Sarsgaard as Bobby Kennedy, um, no, just no - brilliant actor in many other worthy projects, but still no), and has some unforgivable omissions.  Even Natalie Portman, who has been lauded for her performance doesn't seem right for the part.  Her accent goes in and out. She does have one redeeming part of the movie where she is giving a tour of the White House for the tv cameras, and she does embody what we all remember about Jackie Kennedy.  Other than that, much of her performance seems like someone trying to be Jackie Kennedy rather than being Jackie Kennedy.  The famous scene (in real life) when the family is preparing to walk to the funeral where Jon-Jon famously and adorably salutes in his little pea coat?  Totally omitted from the film, which was terribly disappointing.  All of the images that we think of when we think of this moment in history are notably absent.

The costumes were, of course, spot on an perfect.  There is a scene where Jackie is drinking, alone, in the depths of despair, and furiously trying on all of her different outfits.  It was during this moment that I thought, "this scene was written to get the costumer an Oscar nomination," because it simply had little relevance to the story.  But ok, the costumes were spot on, so why not give Madeline Fontaine a little featured part of the film.

The Original Score is indeed haunting, and does complement the film perfectly, but that was the only part of the movie that felt authentic.  I'm sure the story was well researched or, it was an interesting exercise for the imagination about what Kennedy might have done in the immediate days after the shooting.  Unfortunately, it just didn't ring true to me.