Chappaquiddick

Starring: Jason Clarke, Kate Mara, Ed Helms, Bruce Dern, Jim Gaffigan, Olivia Thirlby, Clancy Brown, Taylor Nichols, John Fiore
Directed by: John Curran
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama
2018

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Ted Kennedy (Jason Clarke) is involved in a car accident that kills his passenger (Kate Mara) and threatens to destroy his political future.

Review:

Tim: I went into Chappaquiddick feeling quite excited about the film. A biopic about Ted Kennedy, especially the awful situation on Chappaquiddick and the subsequent cover up should have been fascinating. Plus, they filmed part of the movie where my wife works and she was involved in the shoot. I had every reason to like this movie. As it started, I felt somewhat troubled by what I saw. The film wasn't as compelling as it should have been. A few spikes in the entertainment value teased the movie potentially turning a corner, but it never makes that shift. By the end of the film, disappointment was the overpowering sense. Sure, this is still a fairly decent movie. However, the film had bigger aspirations than "decent", so it's hard to feel good about the final product.

The early scenes of the film were not handled well. Fairly quickly, the movie needed to establish quite a few characters and position them for the "event" at Chappaquiddick. These scenes were confusing and not clear and compelling enough. I especially found fault with the portrayal of Kennedy in the moments leading up to the fatal car crash. He'd been drinking, but it felt like the movie tiptoed around this. The relationship he had with the woman who was killed was also unnecessarily ambiguous. The car crash is a powerful moment and it doesn't come across that way. I believe Curran missed opportunities in the early stages of the film.

The movie picks up steam once the wreck is found and Kennedy and his cronies go into full crisis mode. The best scenes of the film involve Kennedy in a room surrounded by advisors and the disconnect between his belief that things are under control and their wiser view of the situation. There are several moments there where I felt like the film was going to redeem itself, that it was going to deliver a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how these powerful men were able to salvage the career of Ted Kennedy. We never quite get that. There's some scenes of dissenting opinion with his cousin, a few scenes of the dysfunctional relationship with his strict father. It never really grabs us in a meaningful way. It's too easy to shrug all of this off. By the time the film ends, I didn't feel any truly deep emotions. I expected I would have been livid that the death of a woman was so callously brushed aside as an accident when it easily could have been prevented. I wanted Kennedy either exonerated or damned for his behavior before, during and especially after the accident. The movie never fully commits to this. It's not even presented in a purposely ambiguous way for us to ruminate on what we believe actually happened. Scenes take place and the story moves forward and it all feels so surface level. I don't believe the film dug into Kennedy or the events nearly enough.

The issues with the story are troubling because some strong performances are wasted here. Jason Clarke was almost unrecognizable as Kennedy. He gives a strong performance, but it's not quite good enough to warrant end of the year acclaim. The movie isn't strong enough and Clarke is good but never great. I give Clarke credit, though- the transformation he undergoes is impressive. Kate Mara was a great addition to the cast, but we don't spend enough time with her to identify with her as a character. Her death is less a cause of outrage and more like a footnote in this story. The real-life event was so sad, but that isn't conveyed nearly strongly enough here. Ed Helms gives a strong supporting performance. It was fun to see him in a dramatic role and he did a good job. Jim Gaffigan was another nice addition of a comedic actor playing a dramatic part. Helms and Gaffigan were both solid. I liked seeing Olivia Thirlby here, but she doesn't get enough to do. Clancy Brown has a few solid moments, but he needed more screen time. As a whole, it felt like director John Curran isn't able to fully leverage his cast.

Look, Chappaquiddick is a decent movie. I liked aspects of it. It would have been easy for me to claim this was a good movie and move on. However, there were so many opportunities for this to have been a great movie- the kind of film that gets love from the Academy at the end of the year. I'm willing to bet this film is completely overlooked and forgotten by the end of 2018. That's because we got a decent movie when all the signs pointed to this possibly being something special. That never happened and I lament that.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: JFK, Nixon, The Painted Veil