Jackie on road to success

by Boyd van Hoeij

15/06/2012 - The third feature from Dutch director Antoinette Beumer, Jackie [trailer], has proved to be another hit with audiences.

After debuting with The Happy Housewife [trailer], based on a bestselling novel, and making the thriller Loft, a remake of the Belgian box-office success, Jackie is Beumer’s third success in a row, as well as her first film based on an original screenplay.

Jackie was written by the screenwriting duo Karen van Holst Pellekaan and Marnie Blok, who also wrote the Happy Housewife adaptation. It’s an American-style road movie about two Dutch twin sisters (played by real-life siblings Carice and Jelka van Houten) who travel to the United States to help out their American surrogate mother, whom they’ve never met.

The titular Jackie (Oscar winner Holly Hunter) doesn’t seem to want their help initially. But with her broken leg and pierced eardrum (which make driving or flying impossible), she’s forced to rely on the two strangers to take her to a revalidation centre in New Mexico in her “rust bucket,” a camper that has seen better times.

A mix of comedy and drama, Jackie was released May 10 courtesy of Benelux Film Distributors. The Eyeworks Film & TV Drama NV has sold more tha 100,000 tickets in just over a month, with a box-office now take approaching €1.1m.

The only Dutch film currently in wide release, it is still playing on 96 screens after five weeks (for comparison, the most visited film of last week, Snow White and the Huntsman, was released on 100 screens in its first week).