Review of Chappaquiddick
** out of five stars
Available on video
by Walter G. Tarrow
In the very early hour of Friday, July 19, 1969, while the nation turned its eyes to the heavens to the Apollo 11 spacecraft, in anticipation of realizing the late President John F. Kennedy’s promised dream of landing the first man, an American, on the moon, the movie Chappaquiddick recounts that JFK’s idiot youngest brother Senator Ted Kennedy was, through his incompetence, driving his car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island into Poucha Pond, leaving young, single and vulnerable Mary Jo Kopechne to drown.
The facts in the case, primarily from Ted’s actual testimony, and testimony from a very limited number of witnesses, before and after the incident, none during (there were no actual eyewitnesses to the plunge off the bridge), are part of public record. What aren’t part of public record are substantiated accounts of the accident and death, and corroborated statements of the behind the scenes shenanigans orchestrated and executed by Teddy’s cronies.
Perhaps he was in shock, was suffering from a concussion as a result of the car accident, was dazed and confused, and reeling from the impact of it all, of being responsible for the tragic death of an innocent young woman. Or perhaps he was a calculating schemer who was misdirected by less savvy connivers.
What we will never know is the plain, unvarnished truth, now that the perpetrator, the fourth longest serving member of the US Senate, has himself died. Was he or was he not engaged in some tawdry drunken tryst with Ms. Kopechne? Was he, as this movie attests, the bumbling schmuck who, through his stupidity, made one false and disastrous move after another, in failing to save Mary Jo, in neglecting to report the tragic accident in a timely manner to the authorities, and in subsequently bungling explanations of his actions in a manner that was both believable and in the interest of protecting his reputation and his chances at becoming a viable candidate for the presidency?
So we are presented a fabricated depiction of a tragic accidental death and coverup. With rampant conjecture as to the conversations amongst Ted’s inner circle, with his confidants and with his incapacitated, yet still horror of a curmudgeon, pater (we see this poor loser of a surviving son begging for his father’s approval in the midst of a homicide investigation). And to his rescue come law enforcement, his political machine and his own fake news media to explain it all away with a slap on the wrist and the undying support of his fans, his constituents, the national worship of the Kennedy clan who took us to the Moon.
I strongly suspect this film project was paid for by Mary Jo’s family, friends and supporters. It wears its biases on its sleeve. It is at its heart a scathing indictment of the rich and powerful privileged Kennedy dynasty burying an innocent, the pure and guileless Mary Jo, the victim of Ted’s failings, trapped in the car, left to drown and die, reciting the Lord’s Prayer as her lungs fill with water.
Chappaquiddick as high level, behind closed doors, conspiracy theory is at best a mediocre mess and far less interesting than the actual news report footage incorporated into the film. The writing is by the numbers, the directing all but nonexistent, and the actors are wooden, void of emotion.
But the casting is most abysmal. Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty, Everest), as Ted, is an Aussie with an on again, off again, “Kennedy” accent, and totally unbelievable in his role. Ed Helms, the accomplished comic actor from The Office and The Hangover, as Ted’s cousin Joe Gargan, looks to be suffocating under all the drama. And Bruce Dern (so wonderful as the old man in one of my all time favorites Nebraska) is an embarrassment as Papa Joe. Add Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption) as I-didn’t-even-know-who-he-was-supposed-to-be-until-I-read-the-credits Robert McNamara, and we have sufficient grounds to sue the casting director.
Well, enough with the fake news movie. I’m heading out to see Dinesh D’Souza’s Death of a Nation for a taste of the truth. Wish me luck, and I’ll get back to you later in the week with my review.