I'm not sure I understand all the terrible reviews for this movie. People criticize Kristen Stewart for her part but I thought she played an excellent part. Unless the critics personally knew Jean Seberg, how could they say that Kristen Stewart did not portray her well?
I thought the story was compelling & surprisingly accurate (but not as much so as it could have been) although it could've actually been a better story if they were more accurate. According to the New York Times AND the FBI themselves (google it, the FBI admitted to ALL the wrongdoing in this movie & MUCH MORE), everything done to her by the FBI as portrayed in the movie is 100% accurate & then some. The FBI agent who is supposed to be 'sympathetic' toward the actress is inaccurate but I can understand the angle of having someone try to see her point of view.
What I truly don't understand is why the movie had the very very confusing storyline of her attempted suicide & then press release saying that her baby died at 2 days old, when the press release in the movie happened right after the attempted suicide & she was pregnant at the time. It made it look like the attempted suicide killed her child, but she was pregnant at the time so that was unnecessarily confusing when the actual truth is when the FBI reported falsely that she was pregnant w a Black Panther's child she went into premature labor, gave birth & the baby lived for three days. The movie could easily have use that as part of the story, making it far more interesting, accurate & much less confusing. I really enjoyed the film but was COMPLETELY confused as to why a baby who wasn't full term (or even close) was pronounced dead at 2 days old, during a press conference that took place what after a suicide attempt.
That's my only criticism of the movie.
Otherwise I found it compelling (I'm reading EVERYTHING I can on the actress now & was already familiar w her story), well made & the portrayal if Jean Segel SEEMED to me to be good, although I'm a bit too young to have seen much of her in the press in the 1960s & 70s.
Enjoy, it's well worth the watch!
Enjoy, it's well worth the watch!