MOVIE REVIEW: Bobby

2 1/2 stars
Directed by Emilio Estevez
MGM


Seems like everybody wants a little piece of that Kennedy magic—Anthony Hopkins, Lindsay Lohan, Sharon Stone, Elijah Wood, William H. Macy, Demi Moore, Martin Sheen, Heather Graham, Helen Hunt, and Christian Slater to name a few. Unfortunately, this over-the-top movie star-apalooza merely signals what’s to come—a bombardment of hyperbolic political maxims and religious statements that are better suited for an Al Sharpton rally than a thoughtful movie.

“Bobby” is written and directed by Emilio Estevez, an avowed Kennedy admirer who previously adapted the script for 1985’s “That Was Then… This Is Now.” It follows a handful of archetypal 1960s characters—the hippie druggie, the angry black protestor, the hopeful political junkies, the child war bride, and the impressionable youth—as they live their lives on a normal day inside L.A.’s Ambassador Hotel. Their otherwise unremarkable day coincides with the 1968 assassination of presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy at the same hotel.

Although Estevez’s use of real images of RFK’s life, speeches, and death frames the movie and provides a portrait of the impassioned politician, the film itself does not actually focus on the inspirational figure. It instead chooses to highlight the “normal” Americans affected by the tragedy. However, Estevez’s heavy pen of righteousness bleeds through every line.

Fortunately for the viewer, many of the actors (particularly Lindsay Lohan of “Mean Girls” and Sharon Stone of “Basic Instict”) imbue their performances with such sincerity that the hackneyed dialogue works on occasion. As Miriam, the Ambassador’s hair stylist, Stone is riveting. In a film where few of the supposedly “average” characters appear realistic, Stone brings remarkable poise and depth to her role. When she looks at her cheating husband, Paul (William H. Macy), Stone’s silence speaks volumes.

As Estevez spent seven years attempting to get the movie made, personal passion for the project is hardly lacking. Then again, if passion alone could carry a movie, maudlin busts like “Showgirls” would be nominated for Oscars.

Between the film’s soundtrack, including music contemporary to the film’s period, and the historical images of RFK, “Bobby” harkens back to a more stylized cinematic era—that of Oliver Stone’s “JFK.”

Instead of “JFK’s” multi-layered political intrigue, Estevez provides little moral gray area in “Bobby”—bad is bad, good is good, and RFK is canonized as the next American saint. Although Estevez’s immense admiration for RFK remains quite evident in the black-and-white images he selects and the words he writes, the bulk of the film leaves something to be desired. “Bobby” leaves you unsatisfied. Even Ashton Kutcher’s humorous stint as an LSD pied piper for the politically active youth cannot create enough of a smoke screen to hide the film’s inadequacies.

Bottom Line: Though passionate, Estevez’s impassioned answer to the famous “We want Kennedy” cry is ultimately unfulfilling.

—Reviewer Kathleen A. Fedornak can be reached at kfedorn@fas.harvard.edu.