This is a terrific movie for those who love political dramas. Jason Clarke is a very good if slightly underrated actor who does an admirable job as Teddy, the dimwitted son and major let-down of the Kennedy clan.
There isn't really alot to make this movie memorable, other than the docu-drama style; it isn't emotionally wrenching, there is no major score to it. It is simply a retelling of an event and tragedy. An aspect that it teases at the beginning but then drop out of towards the middle, is the inner turmoil that the anti-hero is experiencing. It drops out of that aspect the minute the plot point starts, the goes back to the biography.
Now to get into the movie. Wow! Talk about a scandal! At the beginning, we see Ted, youngest and BY FAR stupidest son of the Kennedy clan, having a party with advisors at his cabin in Chappaquiddick Island, fresh off of losing a boat-sailing race by coming in 9th, and the subsequent feeling of being a 'loser' aren't really even used as a foreshadowing for the character's inner feelings, which I thought was a major let-down. But this movie does well at showing how evil people do things when things go wrong. Basically, Senator Kennedy drives his friend and prospective political advisor, the then very young Mary Jo Kopechne, away from a party they threw with their friends and brain trust, to celebrate Senator Kennedy's upcoming run for President, and all the butt-kissers are there showering praise on each other. Then the Senator, having had too much to drink or just distracted by his own thoughts (?), takes a wrong turn and ends up tipping his car off a bridge. The infamous wooden bridge. Then this is where all the creeps in the movie (including Kennedy himself) get even creepier. First, he hikes back to the party location, tells his political advisor, looking deschevilled and wet, that he "won't be President (?), however that is to be taken is unclear. He then tells them what happened. The three of them (Jim Gaffigan, the other guy, and the Senator), go back to the site, the advisors strip down to underwear and jump in attempting to open the car door. They can't get it open. Teddy is lying on his back looking up at the moon and thinking to himself, 'She's already dead'. They come out of the water, they drive the Senator to Edgartown (nearby town), and they say, 'Tell me you'll call and report this, please Senator'. (Misery loves company and so does evil I guess!). Senator K says ' Yes I will'. He then hikes to an Inn!!!!!, and gets a room for the night!!!!!! Passing by several phone booths on his way!!!! Next morning he calls his dad, the master Mammon worshipper Joseph Kennedy, and asks him what to do. All you can hear from the stammering father at the end of the call is "Alibi....". Let's skip a little bit here now.... Later on in the movie, at the funeral, this dipstick slease Senator puts on a neck brace to go to Mary Jo Kopechne's funeral!!!! He does this because he thinks it will 'invoke some sympathy'.. This incompetant boob gets caught turning around in the church, his neck doing a complete 105-degree turn to look at the person sitting behind him, and it gets into the newspaper!!!!!!!!
The ending is just more of the same, but even more shameful. The movie ends with a shameful speech given by a shameless, evil person. He blames the lack of guardrails for the accident, and essentially says, ' please feel sorry for me, my family has been through a lot'.
This is all a true story, by the way! This was a true story ripped from official record. For those of you political junkies who may / may not like a scandal, this is the movie for you!!!
There isn't really alot to make this movie memorable, other than the docu-drama style; it isn't emotionally wrenching, there is no major score to it. It is simply a retelling of an event and tragedy. An aspect that it teases at the beginning but then drop out of towards the middle, is the inner turmoil that the anti-hero is experiencing. It drops out of that aspect the minute the plot point starts, the goes back to the biography.
Now to get into the movie. Wow! Talk about a scandal! At the beginning, we see Ted, youngest and BY FAR stupidest son of the Kennedy clan, having a party with advisors at his cabin in Chappaquiddick Island, fresh off of losing a boat-sailing race by coming in 9th, and the subsequent feeling of being a 'loser' aren't really even used as a foreshadowing for the character's inner feelings, which I thought was a major let-down. But this movie does well at showing how evil people do things when things go wrong. Basically, Senator Kennedy drives his friend and prospective political advisor, the then very young Mary Jo Kopechne, away from a party they threw with their friends and brain trust, to celebrate Senator Kennedy's upcoming run for President, and all the butt-kissers are there showering praise on each other. Then the Senator, having had too much to drink or just distracted by his own thoughts (?), takes a wrong turn and ends up tipping his car off a bridge. The infamous wooden bridge. Then this is where all the creeps in the movie (including Kennedy himself) get even creepier. First, he hikes back to the party location, tells his political advisor, looking deschevilled and wet, that he "won't be President (?), however that is to be taken is unclear. He then tells them what happened. The three of them (Jim Gaffigan, the other guy, and the Senator), go back to the site, the advisors strip down to underwear and jump in attempting to open the car door. They can't get it open. Teddy is lying on his back looking up at the moon and thinking to himself, 'She's already dead'. They come out of the water, they drive the Senator to Edgartown (nearby town), and they say, 'Tell me you'll call and report this, please Senator'. (Misery loves company and so does evil I guess!). Senator K says ' Yes I will'. He then hikes to an Inn!!!!!, and gets a room for the night!!!!!! Passing by several phone booths on his way!!!! Next morning he calls his dad, the master Mammon worshipper Joseph Kennedy, and asks him what to do. All you can hear from the stammering father at the end of the call is "Alibi....". Let's skip a little bit here now.... Later on in the movie, at the funeral, this dipstick slease Senator puts on a neck brace to go to Mary Jo Kopechne's funeral!!!! He does this because he thinks it will 'invoke some sympathy'.. This incompetant boob gets caught turning around in the church, his neck doing a complete 105-degree turn to look at the person sitting behind him, and it gets into the newspaper!!!!!!!!
The ending is just more of the same, but even more shameful. The movie ends with a shameful speech given by a shameless, evil person. He blames the lack of guardrails for the accident, and essentially says, ' please feel sorry for me, my family has been through a lot'.
This is all a true story, by the way! This was a true story ripped from official record. For those of you political junkies who may / may not like a scandal, this is the movie for you!!!