It's a fascinating story, to be sure. Ted Kennedy, the last of the Kennedy sons, attends a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts, midsummer of 1969. While there, he drives his automobile off a small wooden bridge into standing water, wherein his lone passenger drowns. Though the true events of that night may never actually be known, the film maneuvers through differing testimonies and evidence in an engaging historical picture.
Unfortunately, despite some clearly researched writing and earnest acting, the film falls to its doom just like Kennedy's car. There's just nothing interesting about it. It's laid out like a crime procedural, but we don't even have the benefit of liking the characters. They're all rude and selfish and conniving, trying to save face and build campaign roots more often than being human beings. In this way, I wondered a few times if the film was simple propaganda, slinging mud at a beloved senator. Ultimately, I don't think that's the case, though it would have been more interesting of the film to reference Kennedy's lengthy and distinguished career, or even perhaps that his character matured and changed as a result of this tragedy. Something, at least, that didn't diminish the movie to the level of a one-note attack. (Well, I say "diminish", but really it's just not a great movie anyway. The editing is jarring when it's not boring and the screenplay is silly when it's not indigestible.)
Then again, I don't think the film is pandering to a conservative base, either. It's a damning portrayal of a man who -- whatever his intentions -- killed a woman that rings loudly in #MeToo America. The film is clearly made by a man, and the male gaze is palpable, especially in an unnecessary, icky sequence watching Kate Mara's character stuck in the car as it fills with water, gasping for air for far too long. But then, when she's discovered and pulled from her watery grave, she's raised up in Christ-like fashion. It's just a strange sequence. Whatever a film's subject's political alliance, it's important to recognize the importance of films that, whether truthful or not or to any degree, destabilize men in power and shed light on the ways in which law and politics can be so easily manipulated by money.
It's like watching an episode of House of Cards, except without the artistry. Director John Curran does his usual bland filmmaking, telling a story without much, if any, aesthetic inflection or inspiration. Actually, watching this film is more akin to watching a History Channel documentary/reenactment of the incident, it's so dramatically flat. Even Jason Clarke isn't particularly engaging as the man carrying the film, despite his fabulous talent, and Kate Mara, the only female role of any significance, of course dies less than a third of the way through the movie.
IMDb: Chappaquiddick
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