On 18 July, 1969, US Senator Ted Kennedy left a party on Chappaquiddick Island with his late brother Robert's 28-year-old former secretary Mary Jo Kopechne. Very shortly later, Kennedy accidentally drove his car off a bridge over Poucha Pond. He managed to escape, but left Kopechne there to drown and failed to report the accident for a day. The film Chappaquiddick gives a glimpse into what may have happened next as the Kennedys tried to deal with it.
This is a watchable but very uneven movie. Director John Curran, whose previous film was the stunning Tracks (2014), and writers Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan deserve kudos for bravely seeking to add more of the pieces of what remains, 50 years later, an incomplete puzzle, and numerous scenes are thoroughly compelling and balanced, but unfortunately they're sandwiched between others that couldn't have been handled more monotonously and almost derail what I think is the film's intended effect: to encourage the viewer to play armchair detective before and after the credits roll.
Queensland's own Jason Clarke is effective as Kennedy, with Bruce Dern and Ed Helms backing him up solidly as Joseph Kennedy, Sr. and Ted's cousin Joe Gargan respectively, but Kate Mara is wasted as Kopechne. It is delicately and patiently shot and edited, but Garth Stevenson's score is intrusive and stale. Overall, Chappaquiddick is reasonable but as far as movies about the Kennedys go, it's no match for JFK or Jackie.
No comments:
Post a Comment