Katie Holmes' Performance Is the Biggest National Tragedy In This Kennedys Trailer

Judging by the trailer, the eight-part miniseries The Kennedys, which has endured nearly as much bad luck as its titular family, is even worse than you've heard. Which is saying a lot considering how much has already been said about the project -- starring Greg Kinnear and Katie Holmes as the fabled first couple in Camelot -- that the History Channel, Showtime, FX and and Starz all flat-out refused to air.

Fortunately for history masochists everywhere, Reelz snapped up the distribution rights at a bargain bin rate and will premiere this eight-part series on April 3. No, it can't be that bad. Even though historians cried "character assassination" and historical inaccuracies after reading the script, the project, which allegedly cost $30 million, looks like a quality mini-series. Academy Award nominees Greg Kinnear and Tom Wilkinson (who plays Joe Kennedy) are wonderful in nearly every project they've ever done, so by some kind of entertainment transitive property, how could they not be here? True Grit actor Barry Pepper pulls off a convincing Bobby Kennedy, and may take the door prize for Best Kennedy Dialect. The costumes are impeccable.

But Katie Holmes. Poor, poor Katie Holmes. Attempting to play Jackie Kennedy was a losing battle from the start and here, Holmes is able to look elegant and poised. The problem appears to be when she opens her mouth. In some parts of the trailer, she delivers a back alley acting class rendition of Upper Class Massachusetts and in other parts, she speaks with no accent at all -- relying on that lop-sided grin and constant blinking that Anne Hathaway parodied so effectively on Saturday Night Live.

VERDICT: Not sold! And curious whether the Razzie Awards have a category for Worst Actress in a Made-For-Television movie yet.


The Kennedys | Movie Trailer | Review



Comments

  • Cameron says:

    What are you saying Movieline?! Katie's fine. She was fantastic in Dawson's Creek and Doug Liman's Go and she's fine here. Your headline for this is ludicrous. Barry Pepper is the standout here, he was a revelation in True Grit, but everybody else is just fine. I look forward to seeing this mini-series. Movieline, what with this and the Busy Phillips fiasco, you need to get your act together, the mob are fickle and you're losing credibility, fast.

  • Wait, wait, wait. One thing at a time. Are you being serious?

  • missy says:

    Whatever, this site is constantly bashing Katie. Did she run over your cat or something? Give the girl a break.

  • e says:

    Todd Philips nailed you guys. I totally want to hate this movie on its anti-kennedy principles but I haven't seen it, so i can't. Just like there is no reason to rip on anyone's performance based on this trailer.
    Lazy.

  • Martini Shark says:

    This does look like a mess. Pepper appears to be on point, but Kinnear - good as he is - looks just like Kinnear, and it pulls you out of the scenes. And Holmes?! She looks like she is at a celebrity Halloween costume party, and then walks around reminding people who she is supposed to be.

  • Chicago48 says:

    The problem is that this is rehash....the story has been told and retold, there are documentaries about the Kennedys....unless the producers ran out of ideas I don't understand why this is being made. I can recite the Kennedy story blindfolded....Will anybody care about this mini-series? Maybe the new generation that don't know about them, but the rest of us, it's old stories.

  • sittingpat says:

    HA! That first bit with Katie doing a really, really broad accent. Jackie Kennedy did not speak with a Boston accent. But I see someone slipped her a note and she dropped it thereafter. Real quality production. She is definitely the onion in this petunia field.

  • G says:

    I am TOTALLY buying Kinnear as Kennedy. The likeness is unexpected and really uncanny. Also- he's awesome.

  • Patrick McEvoy-Halston says:

    Anne Hathaway is a giant compared to Katie Holmes -- SHE, like Jackie, actually HAS presence -- so I can forgive her more than sneaking a laugh at Katie's expense: seems but appropriate. But the aim might be with this to make the '60s seem more like Mad Men-light, as if everything was the same but got muted after the '50s, rather than intensified, wholly changed -- finally awakened. For those of us who sense none of the charisma about Obama that others seem to, we're wondering if this is all a plot to keep Obama and the rest of the talented but still shortchanged (even lovely Anne Hathaway?) the absolute perfection of human kind, rather than themselves, significant slippage.
    I know this is supposed to be a Republican take. I don't think that's quite right: it's just the anti-hippie take.

  • LD says:

    Of course she can't act -- she was brainwashed by the cult!

  • bette says:

    Cute as she is, poor Katie always looks like a little girl playing dress-up in ill-fitting clothes. While I haven't yet seen this mini-series, it's hard to picture her as a poised adult.