Susan Granger’s review of “Bobby” (MGM/Weinstein Company)
On June 4th, 1968, charismatic, 42 year-old Presidential hopeful Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan, a 24 year-old Palestinian.
Writer/director/actor Emilio Estevez utilizes Robert Altman’s multi-character narrative technique to imagine a series of disparate vignettes that took place that day at RFK’s campaign headquarters, the Ambassador Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
The hotel manager (William H. Macy) is cheating on his beautician wife (Sharon Stone) with a switchboard operator (Heather Graham). The former doorman (Anthony Hopkins) hangs out in the lobby with a pal (Harry Belafonte). The nightclub’s drunken diva (Demi Moore) squabbles with her long-suffering husband (Emilio Estevez). A hippie dealer (Ashton Kutcher) trips out on LSD with two Kennedy volunteers (Shia LeBeouf, Brian Geraghty). A Czech reporter (Svetlana Metkina) begs an aide (Joshua Jackson) for an RFK interview. A young bride (Lindsay Lohan) marries a friend (Elijah Wood) so he won’t be sent to Vietnam, while an older couple (Martin Sheen, Helen Hunt) emotionally reconnects.
Under the bigoted kitchen supervisor (Christian Slater), interracial tensions bubble as a Mexican busboy (Freddy Rodriguez), consoled by the chef (Lawrence Fishburne), works a double-shift even though he has tickets for a pivotal Dodgers game.
But these trivial, star-studded “Grand Hotel”-like subplots are not compelling. And the explosive ending – which should unify the episodes – is pedestrian.
Estevez unabashedly idealizes RFK, utilizing flattering newsreel footage to present him in an almost saintly light, thanks to Richard Chew’s editing and Mark Isham’s evocative music. And, in archival tirades against “an unpopular war,” it’s not difficult to substitute ‘Iraq’ for ‘Vietnam’. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Bobby” is a fragmented yet poignant 6 – concluding with RFK’s stirring final speech which illuminates the depth of America’s loss that day.
