I Am Jackie O (2020)
(On Cable TV, April 2021) Stepping away from the entertainment celebrities that characterize most of its topics, Network Entertainment’s newest entry in its “I am” series takes on Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Once one of the most famous women in the world as the First Lady of the John F. Kennedy administration and then the wife of one of the world’s richest men, “Jackie O” is now a bit of a historical trivia — her considerable influence was not something that translated well to history books, and it’s noteworthy that the latest event film about her, Jackie, was an examination of the days immediately following the assassination of her first husband. In this context, I Am Jackie O serves more as good refresher about the woman behind the easy clichés and historical pictures. Born to a wealthy family but incredibly intelligent, the young Jackie seemed to have trouble finding a husband until the young and ambitious John F. Kennedy Jr. walked into her life. The Camelot years remain the highlight of her life, as the young and culturally hip couple brought a revitalization of Washington. The impact of the JFK assassination is brought home by the film’s explicit commentary that, at once, she lost her house, her job and her husband — leading to a later romance with a billionaire that many took as a betrayal. I am Jackie O goes a bit too fast on the Onassis marriage and her later years as an activist in New York City, perhaps out of recognition that, no matter what she did in the thirty years after the JFK assassination, people had trouble seeing her as anything else. Fortunately, the portrait that the rest of the film offers is revelatory — both of her sharp intellect and her turn toward architectural activism late in life. Plenty of talking-head interviews and historical footage pepper the film — plus a few great pictures showing her adorable freckles. As with other films in the “I Am” series, the portrait is highly sympathetic — we may, at most, hear a few lines about JFK’s affairs and their estrangement when he was constantly on the campaign trail, or the critical reactions to her marrying Onassis, but the film seldom goes further. On the other hand — what else would there be to say? While perhaps not as revelatory as other entries in the series (something inevitable considering the historical distance of the topic), I am Jackie O nonetheless remains a serviceable history lesson in an approachable package.