Released 48 years after the events it depicts, 'Chappaquiddick' (2017) will not garner a audience much beyond Baby Boomers now in their 60s and 70s who remember Ted Kennedy's scandalous downfall in the summer of 1969. Bruce Dern is great as stroke-paralyzed Joe Kennedy but the film has him speaking and writing--activities he incapable of after 1962. Jason Clarke kind of looks like Ted and is good in the lead role but the film remains vaguely unsatisfying, probably because it can't or won't answer questions about the incident that still remain utterly baffling. How did Kennedy get out of the submerged vehicle? Did he really try to save Mary Jo Kopechne, as he claimed he did? Why the hell did he wait 8 or 9 hours to report the accident? Authorities later estimated that Mary Jo remained alive in an air pocket for perhaps two hours before drowning--ample time to be rescued if Ted has sought help immediately. One can only imagine what she was going through, trapped in that car in those agonizingly long and desperate moments (the film glosses over this hideous reality a bit too quickly). One thing that does come through in the movie is Ted Kennedy's enormous and almost instinctual sense of entitlement--a taken-for-granted asset of the rich, famous, and powerful that is really an enormous liability, at least in Ted's case, because it renders him an abject fool and a pitiable coward. Some commentators have accused the film of being an anti-Liberal hit piece. I don't think so. In the final analysis, 'Chappaquiddick' is a parable about the existential rot that accrues around social class privilege, political affiliation notwithstanding. Because he was a Kennedy, Ted was slapped on the wrist with just two months probation for what should have been deemed vehicular manslaughter (had he been an ordinary working-class shmoe, Ted would likely have served time in prison). Yes, he was forgiven by Massachusetts voters and served another 40 years in the Senate, but Ted Kennedy will always be known as "The Chappaquiddick Kid": a far cry from his brother, Jack, who performed well in a crisis at sea. The film's best line is uttered by Andria Blackman, who plays Ted's long-suffering wife, Joan. On the way to Mary Jo's funeral, Ted thanks her for sticking by him. But Joan isn't in the mood for Ted's smarminess. She retorts, "Go f**k yourself!"--a sentiment probably approved by most viewers.
Review of Chappaquiddick
