Image courtesy of www.impawards.com
Director :
Emilio Estevez
Cast :
Harry Belafonte “¦”¦”¦.Nelson
Joy Bryant “¦”¦”¦.Patricia
Nick Cannon “¦”¦”¦.Dwayne
Emilio Estevez “¦”¦”¦.Tim Fallon
Laurence Fishburne “¦”¦”¦.Edward Robinson
Brian Geraghty “¦”¦”¦.Cooper
Heather Graham “¦”¦”¦.Angela
Anthony Hopkins “¦”¦”¦.John Casey
Helen Hunt “¦”¦”¦.Samantha
Joshua Jackson “¦”¦”¦.Wade
Ashton Kutcher “¦”¦”¦.Fisher
Shia LaBeouf “¦”¦”¦.Cooper
Lindsay Lohan “¦”¦”¦.Diane
William H. Macy”¦”¦”¦.Paul
Svetlana Metkina”¦”¦”¦.Lenka Janacek
They say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. And when Steven Soderbergh made Traffic, a whole crop of films that borrow his style and story structure came along. Syriana and Babel, amongst others, can be classified as Traffic except its about (fill in the blank) as opposed to “Drugs.”
Newest in this line of films is Bobby, chronicling many different stories on June 4, 1968. Robert F Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel that fateful day, which started out brightly as he began the final process of wrapping up a Presidential nomination and the eventual November showdown with the man his brother beat for the Presidency that same decade (Richard Nixon). While the dreams of another “Camelot” died with Kennedy, that fateful day comes back to life with Emilio Estevez’s Bobby.
Featuring half a dozen stories all culminating in one poignant moment, the film is less of a character based drama as opposed to a disorganized mess with one of the more impressive cast lists to date. And that’s inherently the film’s problem: there is too much going on and not enough time to make it seem worthwhile.
Bobby has an intriguing premise and start. The day and time, as well as the fears therein, are captured well as the film’s start is promising. Estevez has a solid 20 minute opening that establishes the period and the multiple storylines. The setting is immaculately designed, as he gets the little details about the period correct. It’s masterful how Estevez captures that fateful day. What isn’t masterful is the film’s short running time in comparison to its many storylines.
With a half dozen storylines set up to move the film from that morning to the fateful shooting by a young Palestinian, there’s plenty of intrigue that could be developed. The problem is that none of the storylines are developed enough to be worth anything; one would be served by having a scorecard to keep track of all the top level actors in the film as opposed to trying to care about the characters. This is definitely a film that could be served by some development, as opposed to the lack of it that having this many storylines brings.
It doesn’t help that the film is rather poorly written. Estevez has all the best of intentions, trying to craft a film about an era and trying to make it seem relevant to a modern audience, but the problem is that he goes for too many talking points as opposed to trying to develop his characters. Given his limited directorial experience, it’s not shocking that he wouldn’t be as steady a hand as other directors could be with the same material.
It all leads up to a poignant moment set to one of RFK’s great speeches, and yet the last fifteen minutes of the film that it narrates over is a case of too little, too late. The emotional resonance that the speech could provide is missed as the film’s political bloviating and story-telling efficiency ruin any sort of impact the film’s message is trying to make.
