FX’s “Love Story: JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette” Is a Dramatic Examination of Public and Private Lives
The legend of the Kennedy family is as ingrained in American culture as it is in modern pop culture. From the closeness that Jackie Kennedy wanted to cultivate after the death of her husband to the internet worker of Jack Schlossberg, during more than half a century, generations of Americans have been given an in-depth look at the lives of this family. Or so they think. With this closeness comes the inevitable order of the Kennedys’ lives, marked by more tragedy than any other famous family. Yet this closeness they have with the American people is manufactured, done in such a perfect way that one can’t help but feel a part of their weddings, the births of their children, and, of course, their mourning processes.
Created and written mostly by Connor Hines, “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette,” opens in 1999, with Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy (Sarah Pidgeon) getting her nails done as paparazzi wait outside and shout her name. The light from their cameras shines through the windows of the nail shop, and their voices eventually fade into a single wailing plane. Carolyn reacts sheepishly, looking down at her freshly painted red nails before asking her stylist if they can start over with a neutral color. This act makes it immediately clear that, down to the shape and shade of her fingernails, Carolyn’s life has become her own.
We flash back to seven years earlier, before he was constantly plagued by the media, and before he knew John F. Kennedy Jr. (Paul Anthony Kelly). While on the rise at Calvin Klein, John made headlines for failing the bar exam a second time. Although they exist in different worlds, they both work in similar ways: you work hard; he is careful in the way he dresses; he is passionate about being a lawyer; he is forced to continue his work. However, despite the similarities, when the two meet, it is clear that they could not be more different. This difference helps their attraction to each other, but, as we know, it also threatens to tear them apart.
Together, Pigeon and Kelly have amazing chemistry. At the beginning of Carolyn and John’s relationship, they barely see each other at parties and galas, staring at each other and running away as soon as the other makes eye contact. As their relationship progresses, the two actors become passionately passionate, and their arguments become so intense that the paparazzi cannot contain themselves. However, it’s not the two central figures who deliver the most impressive performances: it’s the women around John F. Kennedy Jr. who take the cake as this series of very interesting players.
Gummer enters each scene with an air of desperation, which grows as the show progresses, and the Kennedy children begin to realize that, in the end, they will be the only people on earth left to shape the mark this family will leave on the land they have given so much to. He stares at the people around him as if he feels that he does not belong to them, often going public trying to reveal how much he wants to get rid of himself, not in the name of Kennedy, but in the openness of its former members who held the press and the American people. If anything, “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette” doesn’t sound like a seedy exposé of one of the most famous relationships of the 20th century; it becomes a fascinating revelation of the relationship between public and private life.
There have been many women who have imitated Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, but none as cleverly as Naomi Watts did here. As the aging matriarch whose life slowly deteriorates in the show’s first few episodes, Watts’ physicality speaks volumes. She is obsessed with her son’s love life, not because she wants to control it, but because she wants to control the narrative around it and their family legacy. In the end, John is attracted to Carolyn because she knows who he is, something he himself is not sure about. His mother and sister, Caroline (Grace Gummer), seem to understand this more than he does, and surround him as two women who wish to cling to whatever means they can control.
Nothing about this series feels cheap, which is surprising given that Ryan Murphy is producing it. Instead, the show attracted writers and artists whose dedication bleeds through every monologue delivered by Pidgeon and Kelly, every outfit they wear, and every beautiful needle dropped from the Cocteau Twins’ “Heaven or Las Vegas,” to The Velvet Underground & Nico’s “Venus in Furs.” As the different worlds of Carolyn and John slowly begin to collide, the series shows this conflict by revealing the legends surrounding these two figures, and the painful curse that seemed to destroy them from their first meeting.
The spectacle unfolding in our reality is one that both Carolyn and John have come to loathe, and instead of reveling in it, the series keeps its viewers incredibly distant. At the end of “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette,” much remains unsaid, forcing the viewer to consider whether we ever really knew these people. It feels like the presentation of the program of these figures is hidden by a meaningful mystery, which at the end of the eight episodes evaluated by critics does not feel like an oversight, but an admirable creative choice that works in harmony with the series.
Eight episodes were screened for review.
