Film Review: ‘Chappaquiddick’
Over the years, a great many actors have taken a turn at playing one of the Kennedy brothers (in made-for-TV movies, on “Saturday Night Live,” in big-screen historical dramas). The vast majority of these performances have been mediocre, a handful have been quite good, and a few have been memorable — like Bruce Greenwood’s cuttingly terse and commanding JFK in the Cuban Missile Crisis drama “Thirteen Days,” or Peter Sarsgaard’s tender and battle-scarred Robert F. Kennedy in “Jackie.” To that short list of singular and superb Kennedy performances, we can now add the Australian actor Jason Clarke ’s portrayal of Edward M. Kennedy in “ Chappaquiddick .”
Clarke, with a bit of makeup, looks the part to an astonishing degree: the squint, the hawkish profile, the wedge of hair combed gently over from the left side, the lips that hang slightly open as if pondering a question, giving Kennedy an aura that’s more tentative, less forceful than that of his two legendary older brothers. Clarke also nails the voice — not just the familiar Boston accent but the dry understatement of it. He inhabits Ted Kennedy with the softly halting charm of an aging preppie who can seize up with self-doubt, but who still treats the world as his oyster.
here’s no contrivance in watching this actor; you simply accept the reality of his presence as Ted Kennedy. And that goes for the film as well. “ Chappaquiddick ” is exactly what you want it to be: a tense, scrupulous, absorbingly precise and authentic piece of history — a tabloid scandal attached to a smoke-filled-room travesty. It recounts and anatomizes, with riveting detail, the tragic car accident and its aftermath that cast its shadow over the political career of Edward Kennedy and, in many ways, came to symbolize his existence. The movie is avidly told and often suspenseful, but it’s really a fascinating study of how corruption in America works. It sears you with its relevance and, for that reason, has every chance to find an audience.
“Chappaquiddick” was directed by John Curran, from a super-sharp original screenplay by Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan (it’s their first), and though the film is about a large event, it’s a gratifyingly compact, restrained, and level-headed drama that doesn’t hype what it shows you; it teases the intrigue out of the facts. It starts the day of the accident, when Kennedy heads to Martha’s Vineyard for an annual regatta. His family has a cottage on the adjoining isle of Chappaquiddick, and there’s a low-key party atmosphere, with Ted spending most of his time talking to Mary Jo Kopechne ( Kate Mara ), a former secretary for his late brother Robert who was so devastated by his assassination that she left Washington. Ted is trying to convince her to come back.
Around 11:00 p.m., they drive out to the beach. Ted, who’s been guzzling whiskey from a bottle, zooms away from a local cop (he doesn’t want to be caught drunk, or seen with a pretty blonde he may have designs on). He then turns his gaze toward Mary Jo — and that’s the moment he drives off the bridge. It’s a short wooden structure, with no guard rails, and after fighting his way out of the water, he walks, in a daze, back to the cottage. He may be soused, but he’s already in damage-control mode.
At the cottage, when he sees Joe Gargan ( Ed Helms ), his cousin, friend, and lawyer, the first thing he says is, “We’ve got a problem,” followed by a quick, “I’m not going to be president.” He’s already thinking about himself, and no one but himself. He is thinking, in other words, like a Kennedy. Joe and their other comrade, the Massachusetts Attorney General Paul Markham (Jim Gaffigan), both tell Ted that he needs to report the crime, and he assures them that he will. But what he knows is that reporting the crime means he’ll be tested for alcohol consumption, so he has to wait. And wait.
The film says that what happened at Chappaquiddick was even worse than we think. Kopechne’s body was found in a position that implied that she was struggling to keep her head out of the water. And what the film suggests is that once the car turned upside down, she didn’t die; she was alive and then drowned, after a period of time, as the water seeped in. This makes Edward Kennedy’s decision not to report the crime a clear-cut act of criminal negligence — but in spirit (if not legally), it renders it something closer to an act of killing.
“Chappaquiddick” is a meticulously told chronicle, no more and no less, and at times there’s a slight detachment in watching it, because it’s too tough and smart to milk the situation by turning Edward Kennedy into a “tragic figure.” In certain ways, he may well have been, and there are moments when we see the sad grandeur with which this disaster hangs on his stooped shoulders, but the movie is fundamentally the portrait of a weasel: a man who, from the moment the accident happens, takes as his premise that he will not suffer the consequences, and then does what it takes to twist reality so that it conforms to that scenario.
That twisting consists, mostly, of calling his protectors. It starts with his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, who rasps out one word on the phone: “Alibi!” Joe is an 80-year-old stroke victim who can barely speak; he’s played, sitting in a wheelchair, by Bruce Dern, with a slack leer and a mouth twisted open, but with eyes that still burn with the merciless ferocity of power. Ted, with Joe’s help, is soon face to face with their high-end version of the Deep State: All the Kennedys’ Men, like the brainy speechwriter Ted Sorenson (Taylor Nichols) and the former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (a grimly magnetic Clancy Brown), who begin to make their moves.
A local physician is summoned, so that he can decree that Kennedy suffered a concussion (even though Ted is fine, and the doctor never even examines him). Amazingly, the incident on the bridge took place on the very same weekend as the moon landing, and utilizing that fact, and a little more strategic delaying, the news is kept out of the headlines (though not The New York Times). Then a deal gets cut with the local prosecutor — an old friend of Ted’s — to charge Kennedy with leaving the scene of an accident, which results in a suspended sentence.
It’s all a half-truth, a whitewash, yet Kennedy is so frazzled that he keeps screwing up the cover-up. He gives a written statement to the press that’s full of contradictions, and his decision to wear a neck brace to Mary Jo Kopechne’s funeral — where he somehow has no trouble turning his neck around — becomes an iconic advertisement for his guilty conscience. (The neck brace looks just like the prop it is. Therefore: What’s he hiding?)
Clarke’s Kennedy remains a humanly abashed yet strangely unapologetic figure. His call to the Kopechne family results in a rare moment of remorse, at which point he considers resigning from the Senate. But the pang of sanctimony doesn’t last. He’s a survivor, and a good son, and he does what his father tells him to do. He holds on to his power, without regard to the consequences.
Forty-eight years later, let’s be clear on what the meaning of Chappaquiddick is. Ted Kennedy should, by all rights, have stood trial for involuntary manslaughter, which would likely have ended his political career. The fact that the Kennedy family — the original postwar dynasty of the one percent — possessed, and exerted, the influence to squash the case is the essence of what Chappaquiddick means. The Kennedys lived outside the law; the one instance in American history of an illegally stolen presidential election was the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960. He in all likelihood lost the race to Richard Nixon, but his father tried to steal the election for him by manipulating the vote tallies in (among other places) Illinois. That’s the meaning of Chappaquiddick. too.
I don’t say any of this as a right-wing troll. But those are the facts, and they are facts that liberals, too often, have been willing to shove under the carpet. And they have paid the price. Ted Kennedy became known as “the Lion of the Senate,” and did a lot of good, but when you try to build a governing philosophy on top of lies, one way or another those lies will come back to haunt you. (Hello, Donald Trump! He’s an incompetent bully, but his middle name might be “Liberal Karma.”) As a movie, “Chappaquiddick” doesn’t embellish the incidents it shows us, because it doesn’t have to. It simply delivers the truth of what happened: the logistical truth of the accident, and also the squirmy truth of what went on in Ted Kennedy’s soul. The result may play like avid prose rather than investigative cinema poetry, but it still adds up to a movie that achieves what too few American political dramas do: a reckoning.
http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/chappaquiddick-review-toronto-1202553436/
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This twitter summary actually does a good job of capturing the facts:
Both men tell Kennedy it's time to report the accident, get professional help in case she's still alive. Kennedy refuses. Instead, Kennedy begins working on an alibi, insisting he's going to tell authorities that Mary Jo was driving the car.
The other two men continue to insist the accident must be reported. Kennedy then yells out he'll report it himself, they are not to. Kennedy then jumps into the water and swims the 300 foot channel back to Edgartown where his hotel room is.
Dripping wet, Kennedy arrives back at this hotel room, changes his clothes, stands outside where he will be seen. Kennedy makes it a point at 2:30 am to ask a passing hotel employee what time it is. He's establishing his alibi. His story was now going to be that he wasn't in the accident at all, Mary Jo dropped him off at his hotel & left in the car on her own.
They take the ferry back to Chappaquiddick & Kennedy gets inside a phone booth, ostensibly to report the accident at last. But instead Kennedy, in the privacy of the phone booth, is calling friends and asking for advice. He still hasn't reported it.
He was nothing, but trash. Yet, his worshippers treated him like a god.
Karma can be a bitch and even Kennedy "gods" suffer. He had an aggressive, malignant brain tumor called glioblastoma multiforme and had seizures. His chemo and radiation treatments over 15 months couldn't have been pleasant experiences.
LOL. It took a Canadian to do it.
Not long after the incident, one of Teddy's secretaries came up to him and said "I'm pregnant and you are the father." He told her "Calm down, we will take a drive and talk about it."
I saw this earlier but decided no tto seed the article. The itme is long past that anything could be done, even if the truth could come out. It can't now, the 2 people in that car are both dead now. It's sad this young woman lost her life the way she did and the other occupant of the car went on to a long and successful life, but it happens.
She has family that to this day have never gotten closure.
True, Paula. But I've read stories that the Kennedys handsomely paid off her parents/family so they would not press charges. All-in-all, this event was one of the biggest cover-ups of the 20th century.
Maybe this movie will help, but doubtful there can ever be real closure.
I'm surprised that the Kennedy family (et al) even allowed this movie to get to theaters.They still hold a lot of political "power".
It is somehow appropriate that the actor playing ted is they guy who played the evil terminator in Terminator Genesis.
After my last episode the thought of that young woman's nightmare experience is too much for me.
And, his cronies called him the humanitarian when he was too much of a coward to attempt to save one life that wasn't his.
It will be interesting to see how this movie does at the box office. Generally, these type of films (political intrigue) don't do particularly well. If enough right wing talk show hosts talk it up they may make a minor hit out of it though.
Are you saying that what Kennedy did is excusable. Are you saying that only Republicans find fault with what he did? Are you so blind to the horror of that night? Are you so blinded by hate for Republicans?
Uh, what I am saying is that I expect right wing talk show hosts to promote this movie. Are you saying that you don't expect that to happen?
I expect all journalists to carry this.
Get a grip mags.
Some opinion pieces will probably mention it. I don't think you will see a lot on the Nightly News about it, perhaps on the first day it is out. It's a 50 year old story and I don't think the movie discloses any new evidence about the case.
I dont have any issue with people criticizing or even condemning Kennedy, I don't think a Hollywood movie about it is going to start a fresh round of outrage though, although Limabaugh, Jones, Levin, etc might certainly try.
Many people who are younger than 50 don't know what Ted Kennedy did at Chappaquidick that night and in following days. I'm sure you know that his family, friends, and the media protected him, and that's why younger people don't know the truth.
I don't understand what good it would do anyway. Kennedy has been dead for years. What do people want done? Dig up his corpse and put him on trial?
I don't understand what good it would do anyway. Kennedy has been dead for years. What do people want done? Dig up his corpse and put him on trial?
Knowledge is always a good thing.
But understanding just what a weasel Kennedy was is important in understanding his legacy. While Kennedy has been dead for less than 10 years, many of the people who literally "lionized" him are still in office or in the media. These same people continued to cheer Kennedy, a man who left a woman to suffocate underwater so he could work on an alibi, when Kennedy got on his high horse and acted the moral arbiter.
Once you know these people were wiling to cover for, excuse and celebrate Ted Kennedy, it makes it impossible to take them seriously when they feign outrage over scandals a lot less deadly and horrifying.
People need to remember. The media protected him, the court system protected him. Why? Because he was a rich Kennedy.
There are so many politicians still in Washington who were around.
Example. People still are interested in the Kennedys assassinations......John and Robert. The OJ Simpson saga.
Not anything Pres. Trump could even think about doing could compare to Ted Kennedy's cowardice in allowing a loyal follower to die such a devastating death. She is trying to find air and all the while seeing the water creeping up on her. She knows Ted Is out there and he will do something.....just stay alive.....it doesn't happen, The bastard!
Pre-release, movie critics on both sides of the political aisle have given this movie great reviews. As your comment seems to indicate, this scares people on the left. I look forward to Jimmy Kimmel ridiculing Boston accents.
I don't even consider it a political issue, until the right wing crazies start to come out of the woodwork.
It's more of a history story.
So you don't think Ted Kennedy was a drunken coward who weaseled his way out of this dereliction of human decency that took another person's life? If this had been a Republican you would have been all over it.
Watergate was 50 years ago too. Do you see me talking a lot about that? I tend to concentrate on what is going on now.
Edward Kennedy appears to have behaved in a way that contributed to the woman's death. And now we have a Hollywood movie about the incident. What else do you want people to say?
If this had been a Republican you would have been all over it.
Some thing similar probably has happened and hasn't been discovered.
Hell yes !
Then, maybe, you should and I am no crazie!
I am sorry I was even reminded of this. It was something I couldn't cope with, Smothering, suffocating, fear, stress and all the while that asshole protecting himself. Damn, why didn't he die in prison?
'As your comment indicates, this scares people on the left.'
What's to be scared of?
https://www.dailywire.com/news/29061/grisly-history-chappaquiddick-ben-shapiro
The film tells the story of Ted Kennedy's 1969 killing of political aide Mary Jo Kopechne; the Massachusetts Democratic senator drove his car off a bridge and into the Poucha Pond, somehow escaped the overturned vehicle and left Kopechne to drown. She didn't drown, though. Instead, she reportedly suffocated while waiting for help inside an air bubble while Kennedy waited 10 hours to call for help. The Kennedy family and its associated political allies then worked to cover up the incident. In the end, Teddy was sentenced to a two-month suspended jail sentence for leaving the scene of an accident. The incident prevented Kennedy from running for president in 1972 and 1976, though he attempted a run in 1980 against then-President Jimmy Carter, failing.
So, why is the film important?
It's important because it doesn't traffic in rumors and innuendo -- there is no attempt to claim that Kopechne was having an affair with Kennedy, or that she was pregnant with his child. It's important because it doesn't paint Kennedy as a monster but as a deeply flawed and somewhat pathetic scion of a dark and manipulative family. But most of all, it's important for two reasons: It's the first movie to actually tackle a serious Democratic scandal in the history of modern film, and it reminds us that Americans have long been willing to overlook scandal for the sake of political convenience.
Again, what's to be scared of?
Who said anything about being scared?
Looks like an interesting movie. Too bad we had to wait so long for it.
Yes, it does. That seems to be why some people are already whining.
I’m going to go see it at some point soon.
We are, too.
This movie is a testament to the lifestyle of the Kennedys. Daddy says.....John will be POTUS, but Robert wants to be. No problem, Robert, you will be AG,. but don'[t get in your b rother's way. Ooops, he did. Damn, Robert, you got your brother killed.
And, along bops Ted.....nothing between the ears, but alcohol.
What a group!
t
If Teddy was testament to the Joe Kennedy's lifestyle then Freddy lies in repose to Frederic Trump's...
Whatever JBB.
Clay Shaw was quite a striking figure. Tall, handsome, well dressed.
And? Did you just watch JFK or are you trying to imply something? I honestly do not know...
Ted Kennedy was a flawed man like all others. He redeemed himself to some and not others.
Ted's wife Joan died of drink and their children have all suffered from both drugs and alcohol.
In the end Ted didn't drink himself to death. Freddy Trump did. I wouldn't owe it all to family.
Yes, Freddy Trump did and that is why Pres. Trump doesn't.
I am from N.OL. Saw him walking down Carondelet many times prior to JFK.
How is your Mother doing?
I look forward to seeing this!