|
From a review by the WSJ movie critic.
Not a glowing review: "..belabored chitchat, revealed trivia and narrative thumb-twiddling that threatens to turn the story.. Slowly if unsurely, though, the film finds its focus and purpose -- an evocation of the late 1960's in tumultuous detail, and a stirring reminder of how idealism can galvanize politics, and people"
(snip)
Is a liberal agenda at play here? Of course: "Bobby" casts its fallen hero, without apology, as all but a martyred saint. And without asking questions, let alone venturing answers, about contradictions in his personality, or what kind of president he might have made if he had lived.
(snip)
The problem is not that the conversations are pointless. If anything, they're too obviously designed to point up the issues of the time -- among them racism, Vietnam, the inequities of the draft and the awful impact of Martin Luther King's assassination. What's more, they take so much screen time that Robert Kennedy's impending assassination threatens to become a mere pretext for assorted riffs on the zeitgeist.
(snip)
The drama gets a sudden charge when Kennedy arrives at the hotel. It's amazing how everything starts to change at the very moment of his arrival, even though we know we're watching a stand-in. For those of us who remember that terrible year, it's more amazing that we still have so few defenses against the horror of the event, and the death of such bright promise.
|