“Bobby” (The Weinstein Company)
An Altman-lite Film
Actor/director Emilio Estevez has fashioned a film around the assassination of Robert Kennedy. He has assembled a huge cast of Hollywood stars and relates a variety of stories about people who either worked at or were staying at the Ambassador Hotel on the day Kennedy was shot. It is all presented in a very Robert Altman type fashion but ultimately comes off as Altman-lite as Estevez can’t make his stories as cohesive as Altman always did.
Freddy Rodriguez plays a Hispanic worker at the hotel named Jose. His story is one of the most interesting as he plays a man who interacts with other characters such as the chef (Laurence Fishbourne) and a co-worker named Miguel (Jacob Vargas). Jose is one of those disenfranchised people Kennedy was so determined to help.
Another storyline concerns the hotel manager (William H Macy) who is cheating on his wife (Sharon Stone) with a telephone operator (Heather Graham). The actors do an excellent job in telling this segment of the movie but what it has to do with Bobby Kennedy is not known. The same is true for a segment about an aging singer (Demi Moore) and her toady husband/manager (Estevez).
Other actors in the film include Lindsay Lohan, Elijah Wood, Anthony Hopkins, Christian Slater, Helen Hunt, Martin Sheen, Joy Bryant, Joshua Jackson, Nick Cannon and Harry Belafonte. They are all excellent actors but their stories are not touching or particularly interesting. They seem to be there just to add star power to an ensemble film.
You would think a movie titled “Bobby” would have something to say about the man and his life, or at least his impact on people. Since the film ends with his assassination you never get to see if any of these characters have been affected by the man. And they certainly don’t seem to have any relevance to him in their actions before the tragic event.
The film is rated R for profanity, violence and nudity.
The late Robert Altman was the master of movies with large ensemble casts. The characters in his movies may have started off as diverse and operating in their own spheres but he always managed to have an event that unified them in a connective way. In “Bobby” the characters are mostly strangers and stay that way. They never find the connections Bobby Kennedy was advocating and that is the failure of the film.
Estevez gets an “A” for his efforts, and his cast is above average in acting talent. But the lackluster storyline keeps the film from soaring.
I scored “Bobby” a political 6 out of 10.
