By Emilio Frenk.
Director: John Curran
Cast: Jason Clarke, Ed Helms, Kate Mara, Jim Gaffigan, Taylor Nichols, Clancy Brown, Olivia Thirlby, John Flore, Lexie Roth, Vince Tycer, Andrea Blackman, Tamara Hickey and Bruce Dern.
Rating: Excellent.
John Curran, director of “Tracks”, “Stone” and “The Painted Veil” brings “Chappaquiddick”, his sixth feature film that brings positive results.
Based on true events, the movie centers in the U.S. Senator from Massachusetts Ted Kennedy (Jason Clarke) who is with his friends and family in Martha´s Vineyard. Later that day, Kennedy travels to Chappaquiddick Island with his campaign strategist Mary Jo Kopechne (Kate Mara).
After leaving a party in the middle of the night, both Kennedy and Kopechne drive off of the Dike Bridge. Kennedy escapes leaving Kopechne in the car where eventually she will drown.
Now Ted will have to do anything in his power not only to save his reputation but to preserve the family´s name.
This accident is well known as the “Chappaquiddick Incident”, which marks as one of the major scandals in American history and this is how it took place.
“Chappaquiddick” is a film that takes you from the beginning of the journey from the point of view of Senator Ted Kennedy. We see a man who has been struggling with the family name, since his brothers were also politicians and has the desire to step out of the shadow and make a career on his own.
John Curran was very smart in illustrating that and this is what makes the film very interesting. He knew how to get the best out of his cast, which every single one of the members delivered outstanding performances.
The screenplay written by Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan was very well written and went straight to the facts. The narrative in the film is very linear and the dialogue is very rich. One very interesting note is that is their feature film debut and they did an amazing job.
I can imagine that the amount of research done in “Chappaquiddick” was paramount and you can tell that both writers worked very hard in this project and the result speaks for itself.
Jason Clarke´s performance as Ted Kennedy is remarkable and he portrays him with so much realism that for moments you hate the fact that he tried to get away as much as he could but everything got out of hands and led to fatal consequences.
Another performance that took me by surprise was Ed Helms. I was surprised of how he can play serious roles and he did an outstanding job as well.
The main reason that I liked “Chappaquiddick” a lot was the fact that I didn´t know anything of the facts of the film and it was a huge learning lesson for me.
I also liked the fact that the movie doesn´t have a slow pace, which can be a tendency in this films and overexplain elements. Here it´s not the case and like I mentioned before it goes straight to the facts.
John Curran directed another great film and I know it´s still early in the year but I wouldn´t be surprised if this movie can gets some recognition in next awards season.
“Chappaquiddick” is one of the best films of this year. I highly recommend it for the directing, writing and acting which was marvelous from beginning to end.