First 'Jackie' Trailer: Natalie Portman Shines as the Grieving First Lady

This December, Chilean director Pablo Larraín will premiere two high-profile — and unconventional — biopics: Neruda, about the famed communist Chilean poet and politician, and Jackie, about first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Though both are masterful, it’s the latter that’s most apt to garner Oscar attention, in particular for star Natalie Portman. The movie premiered at the recent Venice and Toronto film festivals, and will be screened at this week’s New York Film Festival. Its buzz is set to only grow now that a debut trailer has been released. Watch it above.

Jackie focuses on Jacqueline Kennedy in the week following the 1963 assassination of her husband, President John F. Kennedy — a narrow period of time whose events are framed by an interview she gives to a reporter (Billy Crudup). In the clip, we see glowing scenes of White House life before the assassination and shocking images from right after, including a glimpse of the speeding convertible carrying the mortally wounded president and a scene of Jacqueline Kennedy in the shower washing off her husband’s blood.

Far from a straightforward biopic, Larraín’s Jackie is, instead, an up-close-and-personal view of the first lady struggling with her grief and sorrow, as well as trying to establish and preserve her husband’s legacy. Her desire to solidify JFK’s place in history — a notion tied to her prior interest in redecorating the White House, as seen in a flashback TV broadcast — is mirrored by the film’s own interest in her impact on the culture, even as the director maintains an intimate focus on her attempts to come to grips with the unspeakable tragedy.

Jackie is at once a stirring star vehicle for Portman — who’s bound to receive a best actress nomination for her performance — and a complex, haunting drama about how moments and images cast a wide shadow over our collective history. Co-starring Peter Sarsgaard as Robert Kennedy, Greta Gerwig, Richard E. Grant and John Hurt, Jackie opens on Dec. 2.