'Chappaquiddick' takes fair, compelling approach to Kennedy scandal
“Chappaquiddick” - ★ ★ ★
Years before Watergate, the name Chappaquiddick became shorthand for political scandal. While the world was celebrating the 1969 moon landing - the legacy of John Kennedy's belief in space exploration - the late president's younger brother was in the midst of a devastating fall from grace.
Taking its name from the Massachusetts island where Ted Kennedy drove his car off a bridge, resulting in the death of his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, the movie “Chappaquiddick” dramatizes that incident and its scandalous fallout, portraying Kennedy as a complex, contradictory figure. The Kennedy dynasty has its share of admirers and critics alike, and - to the film's credit - director John Curran and his screenwriters do not appease either camp. The result is a challenging character study.
It is the summer of 1969, and Ted (Jason Clarke) is still reeling from the assassination of his brother Bobby a year earlier. Ted is a Massachusetts senator, and his friends believe he is positioned well for a presidential run.
After a boat race, Ted and his friends have a party on Chappaquiddick, adjacent to Martha's Vineyard. Ted offers a ride to Mary Jo (Kate Mara), one of Bobby's former secretaries. Ted is drunk, and his car veers into a pond. Ted escapes, while Mary Jo drowns. The film follows Ted as he tries to pre-empt the backlash, maintaining his sympathetic public persona.
As Ted, Clarke avoids caricature, portraying Kennedy as a man who loathes - yet takes advantage of - the heavy expectations that fall on his shoulders. While he experiences genuine grief over Mary Jo's death, that does not hinder his capacity for slick manipulation.
The screenplay (by Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan) strongly implies that Ted was still in a depressive state in 1969. Bruce Dern plays Ted's father, Joe Kennedy - the family patriarch, enfeebled by a stroke - as a hateful man whose impaired speaking ability only intensifies his anger. His disappointment in his son helps makes Ted more sympathetic: a wayward figure who wants to do good.
But Curran never lets that sympathy last long. In the moments after the accident, while Ted is wandering the island, Curran cuts to footage of Mary Jo's death.
Curran films the accident from multiple viewpoints, tweaking it to accommodate Ted's distortions about what happened, but these rationalizations frustrate Ted's friends and advisers. As Ted's cousin and confidante Joe Gargan, Ed Helms creates a character who knows the depths of Ted's deception. By the time Ted makes his apology on national television, Gargan cannot conceal his loathing.
As the press descends on the island, and law enforcement unearths the nature of Ted's crime - Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of a crash - frustration gives way to exasperation. Robert McNamara (Clancy Brown), in one wry scene, tries to work out how to spin the scandal, with Ted not helping matters.
Other Kennedy stalwarts make appearances, and it is in their subtle disappointment that “Chappaquiddick” finds a certain truth about public life: No one dares say what they are really thinking. This lax attention to the truth is what allows Ted, ultimately, to transition from a pariah into the “Lion of the Senate,” as he became known.
If Curran has strong feelings about Ted Kennedy, he conceals them well. “Chappaquiddick” provides just enough detail to allow us to draw our own conclusions, yet no viewer will think of Ted in quite the same way.
<b>Starring:</b> Jason Clarke, Kate Mara, Bruce Dern, Ed Helms
<b>Directed by:</b> John Curran
<b>Other:</b> An Entertainment Studios release. Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material, disturbing images, language and smoking. 101 minutes