The story behind the scandal

Americans seem obsessed by the Kennedys.

 

CHAPPAQUIDDICK

Director: John Curran
Stars: Jason Clarke, Kate Mara, Ed Helms, Bruce Dern, Jim Gaffigan, Olivia Thirlby, Clancy Brown, Taylor Nichols, John Fiore
Rating: (M)
★★★ (out of five)

 

Endless articles and books are written about the minutia of the family’s incident-filled lives.

While I agree they are a fascinating bunch, I don’t find them endlessly fascinating and a movie about the lacklustre youngest son Ted and the accident that derailed his presidential aspirations is probably too dusty a scandal for most Kiwis to bother with.

Chappaquiddick (Rialto) is strictly for the political junkies among you.

Watching the Kennedy fixers spring to work to try to explain how Senator Kennedy (Jason Clarke) escaped from a submerged car, left a young woman trapped inside and failed to alert rescue services until 10 hours later is interesting. However, it is the performance of Australian Jason Clarke as Ted that makes the film come to life.

Ted is living off his siblings cast-offs — even his job as the Senator for Massachusetts was a gift from elder brother John.

It is cold in their shadow, never able to quite measure up but Ted is also a spoilt brat used to always being bailed out by his family’s wealth and fame, which has gotten him out of plenty of scrapes in the past. After the accident, we watch him vacillate between a desire to do the right thing by Mary Jo Kopechne (Kate Mara) and the impulse to try and weasel his way out of the consequences of her death.

- Christine Powley

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