It should have been boring. One person talking about her sorrow – 90 minutes explaining how the death of her husband had rocked her.

Sad, yes. But the ingredients weren’t quite there for a big-screen blockbuster. To the untrained ear, background music at times seemed little more than a slowly raked bow against the lower-range strings of a cello.

Natalie Portman, as Jacqueline Kennedy however, is like a vacuum. She tells how she saw her husband John F. Kennedy was shot, what she saw, how she reacted, the processes of mourning and loneliness, and how she was forced to manipulate those in high positions to ensure she’d arranged the funeral she felt a US President deserved.

It’s as voyeuristic as it is fascinating. It’s insights into the human soul.

Bobby Kennedy and others are represented in parts of the film, but Portman is the star. She’s the one who somehow pulls off a level of engagement which shouldn’t be allowed in a film which is essentially a monologue.

There are tension-relieving moments of light in a movie dominated by shade. Don’t expect a night of laughter and toe-tapping tunes. Rather, expect to be swept into the captivating world of somebody dealing with grief at an unimaginable level.

Portman didn’t win a Golden Globe, but an Oscar wouldn’t be a total surprise.

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