The film plays most effectively — which is not quite to say that it plays effectively — as a story of two couples, Lee and Marina (a Russian-speaking Michelle Trachtenberg), drifting part, and Jack and Jackie, coming together. As the less well-documented, less fabulous pair, there is more room to move with the Oswalds, for the writer and the actors to make them their own. (Trachtenberg has the least-thankless job here; most viewers will have no conception of Marina to measure her against.)
For if Kennedy has been made more human by the posthumous detailing of his flaws, Oswald — for all the many things we know about him — remains a vessel into which conflicting and outlandish notions continue to be poured. He is, oddly, the better subject for a drama, the active party in this date with destiny. Kennedy, who had come to Dallas to do a little party housekeeping, was just going about his business.