Posted on: Thursday, November 23, 2006
FILM REVIEW
Stories work in powerful 'Bobby'
By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service
|
|
|
Elijah Wood and Lindsay Lohan play an engaged couple in "Bobby," written and directed by Emilio Estevez.
Weinstein Co.
|
|
 |
|
|
'BOBBY'
R, for profanity, violence, drug use, implied sex 120 minutes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Assuming you're old enough to remember, do you know where you were when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated?
For the 22 characters in Emilio Estevez's "Bobby," the answer is unforgettable: They're in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, the night RFK is killed in the hotel's kitchen, just after winning the California primary.
Though the facts of Kennedy's appearance and death are true, Estevez has layered a series of fictional stories on top of it, creating an ensemble of folks who represent a broad cross-section of Americans, circa the late '60s:
Two old retirees (Anthony Hopkins and Harry Belafonte) still hang about the hotel lobby, playing friendly games of chess.
The current manager (William H. Macy) and his wife, the hotel hairdresser (Sharon Stone), are having a rough patch in their marriage, which the manager doesn't help by sleeping with a hotel switchboard operator (Heather Graham).
Latino kitchen worker Jose (Freddy Rodriguez) desperately wants the night off to watch Don Drysdale go for a record as the Dodger pitcher, but he's under the thumb of a bigoted boss (Christian Slater.) The hotel sous chef (Laurence Fishburne), meanwhile, teaches a valuable lesson.
A coffee shop waitress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) flirts with a few young Kennedy campaign workers, while awaiting her big Hollywood break. Meanwhile, a drunken lounge singer (Demi Moore) fights with her husband-manager (Estevez), because she's too soused to introduce Kennedy on the stage that night.
A hippie drug dealer (Ashton Kutcher) sets up shop in a hotel bedroom, while a depressed East Coast businessman (Martin Sheen) arrives for a strained second honeymoon with his younger wife (Helen Hunt). An engaged couple is also at the hotel, though the forthcoming wedding is a sham. The girl (Lindsay Lohan) is marrying the guy (Elijah Wood) to save him from the Vietnam draft.
They're just a sampling of the people whose stories unfold in the shadow of an historic tragedy in Estevez's impressive film.
In fact, the former-Brat-Packer-turned-writer-director makes a quantum leap with this mature, well-balanced, and deeply felt film. He expertly juggles the many story lines, making sure they all reflect some aspect of American life and culture at this watershed time. This would be a challenging project for even the most experienced filmmaker; but Estevez fits the bill.
Wisely, Estevez lets Robert Kennedy have the final word, as we hear one of his most appropriate speeches on violence in America, a speech that still rings sadly true.
As Kennedy says: "No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by an assassin's bullet."
