Bobby Review
by [email protected] (dnb AT dca DOT net)December 31st, 2006
BOBBY
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2006 David N. Butterworth
***1/2 (out of ****)
With the great Robert Altman ("M.A.S.H.," "Nashville," "The Player," "Short Cuts," "Gosford Park") sadly no longer with us--he finally succumbed to cancer late last month--it should come as no surprise to see a slew of Altman wannabes, protégés, and general usurpers stepping up to the proverbial plate.
What may come as a surprise is the fact that the first of these is former Brat Packer Emilio Estevez ("The Breakfast Club," "St. Elmo's Fire," etc.), looking more and more like his Dad (Martin Sheen) with every passing year... if only you can get past that fake-looking moustache of his.
What's even more surprising, however, is that Estevez's new film "Bobby" is actually rather good.
The titular Bobby is Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the film focuses on that fateful day--June 4th, 1968--when Kennedy was fatally shot in the kitchen of L.A.'s Ambassador Hotel. A star-studded cast (and then some) play 22 of the hotel's occupants on the day in question, from the Mexican busboy (Freddy Rodríguez) holding a pair of tickets to that evening's historic Dodgers game, to the drunken diva (Demi Moore) slated to introduce the democratic candidate for California after her nightclub act, to a Czechoslovakian reporter (Svetlana Metkina) looking for her fifteen (make that five) minutes of fame.
There's also a pair of political campaigners (Shia LaBeouf and Brian Geraghty) goofing off and getting high (on acid, courtesy Ashton Kutcher's hippie dreamer); a marriage of military convenience (Lindsay Lohan and Elijah Wood); the hotel's hairdresser (Sharon Stone) whose husband, the hotel manager (William H. Macy), is having an affair with a hotel receptionist (Heather Graham); two chess-playing old schoolers (Anthony Hopkins and Harry Belafonte) who never seem to leave the lobby; and a man (the afore-mentioned Sheen) and his fashion- debilitated wife (Helen Hunt) who... well, she just bickers about footwear and he takes her shopping--that's amore!
Estevez, who writes as well as directs (in addition to appearing as lounge singer Virginia Fallon's disposable husband), successfully juggles all of the disparate storylines with consummate ease, bringing out the very best in his performers in the process (Rodríguez, Lohan, Stone, Moore, Laurence Fishburne, and Christian Slater are all particularly noteworthy but not one of the key 22 performers is weak). And Estevez intercuts these "dramatic" situations (which ring mostly true, with just the merest hint of phoniness) with archive footage of RFK on the campaign trail, leading up to his arrival at--and tragic, stretcher-prone departure from--the Ambassador. Moments before, the connections have all been perilously made, cleanly and compassionately, with innocent (and heretofore) bystanders caught in the assassin's crossfire.
It's a strong conclusion made all the more stirring by Kennedy's resonant "divisions" speech overlaid on the soundtrack.
"Bobby" feels nothing less than a love letter, of sorts, to the man who secured the popular vote but who never got the chance to prove himself presidentially, a man beloved by so many, emulated by so few. "Bobby" is an homage, a snapshot in time, and Estevez has crafted a motion picture worthy of the man it honors.
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David N. Butterworth
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
