NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Mehdi Hoffman There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

ghlist7876 I was really looking forward to this movie after having read Leo Damore's landmark book Senatorial Privilege. Damore's book was landmark because Joe Gargan talked to him directly about the events surrounding that fatal evening. Ed Helms did a great job portraying Gargan in the movie. A surprising and welcome shift away from the usual clownish adult characters he has played in the past. As the "New Frontiersmen" planned the media cover-up at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis; Clancy Brown excelling here in his portrayal of the acerbic Robert McNamara; Gargan was shoved aside as the foolish cousin who got involved early and nearly destroyed Kennedy's career. In truth, this is Gargan's story as he personally and professionally paid the price for Kennedy whom he had pressured to deal immediately with the tragedy and to respectfully 'do the right thing'. Kennedy did not do the right thing. This is evident watching old Joe's dealing with the weak willed Teddie in the wake of events. Bruce Dern couldn't have been any better as the amoral and degenerate Joe Kennedy. So much power with so few spoken words. This insight into the Kennedy compound discussions and an account of the time spent between Teddie and Mary Jo after leaving the cottage and prior to the accident are the two threads that make this such a great movie. Damore did not postulate on what might have happened in either of those locations or time spans in his book. He reported facts and left it to the reader to decide what happened. The known facts were that both Kennedy and Mary Jo had been drinking; a lot. They had left the cottage to supposedly go to the ferry but Mary Jo did not take her purse. Over an hour later, Huck Look had seen the dark sedan on Cemetery Rd backup then speed off down Dyke Rd at an unusually high speed. Huck Look was an unimpeachable witness and recalled most of the license plate. Kennedy took Gargan and Marham back to the scene of the accident, then, giving up the attempted rescue, made it back to Edgartown in the wee hours of the morning. He then did nothing other than fiddle around town (and sober up) before Gargan and Markham showed up in the morning and demanded again that he report the accident. What Kennedy never revealed publicly is what Director John Curran focused on in his movie. First, what happened in that 'lost' hour and a half right before the accident, and secondly, what exactly was said and done in the compound in the weeks immediately following the accident. I believe Curran, Allen, and Logan got it right. I think they understand what was going on inside Kennedy's mind and at the compound. Other noteworthy performances are Olivia Thirlby as Rachel, the thinly veiled stage name for Esther Newberg, and Kate Mara as the unfortunate and pensive Mary Jo. The top performance is that of Jason Clarke. Physically he could be Teddy Kennedy in both looks and spoken accent. But it was in those moments when he was on the phone, or in the bath, or strutting down the streets of Edgartown that made his portrayal so important. You really got a sense of the mental torture that Kennedy was enduring. As a footnote, Damore's life was ruined by publishing his book and he committed suicide a broken man.

reddskyy If you want to see an hour and forty-six minutes of Ed Helms outshining Jason Clarke, then this movie is for you.

jc-osms This retelling of the death of young Kennedy entourage "Boiler Room" secretary Mary Jo Kopechne and the involvement therein (or lack of same, arguably) of rising US senator and last surviving brother of the Kennedy family dynasty, Edward Kennedy, holds back little as it nails its accusatory colours to the mast.I re-read as much background as I could on the tragic incident and it's difficult not to come to the same conclusion as the writer and director of this movie, that Kennedy firstly failed to attempt to rescue the stricken girl immediately after he escaped the sinking car, then got two of his slavishly obedient underlings to repeatedly dive into the river to try to save the girl, didn't report the matter immediately to the authorities where we learn that if he had, Mary Jo might even have made it out alive, before most shamefully of all, he played down and indeed lied about his role in the matter to go along with the abhorrent advice of the supporting Kennedy machine, a phalanx of important Democrats, including former Secretary of State Robert MacNamara, to cover up his part and so keep alive his future eligibility for the presidency. As usual in dramatisations of real life happenings, some dramatic licence appears to be taken with events. For example was Ted Kennedy really so scared of his elderly, paralysed father, the family patriarch Joseph (played by an unrecognisable Bruce Dern) and so ashamed of himself as the underperforming last son of the family to justify acting in this deplorable spineless way? Then, was there anything sexual between Kennedy and Kopechne on the night - there are cryptic but inconclusive flashbacks shown hinting at something and Kennedy, whose wife hadn't made the trip, was a known womaniser. Did he really contemplate resigning the Senate right up to the last minute before caving into the surrounding peer pressure and instead turn his live TV broadcast into the contemptible self-serving speech it turned out to be, including his horrendous assertion that this was the infamous "Kennedy Curse" working on him - this just in Senator Kennedy, you didn't die, Miss Kopechne did - and in so saying, trying to bathe in the reflected glory of his two slain brothers? I also thought it was a major mistake to fail to mention the substantial payment that was made to the dead girl's parents, presumably to hush them up.Only one person knows what happened on that fateful night and I concur with the film-makers' assertion here that Kennedy not only acted in a selfish, cowardly way at the scene - he even tried to weasel out of this by faking a medical report that he was concussed in the crash which affected his actions and then compounded the felony by "wearing" a neck brace for effect at the funeral.This as I said is a brave film, justifiably, I believe, taking a side and having the courage of its convictions to stick to it. Jason Clarke is excellent as Kennedy while the rest of the lesser known cast give him credible support. The direction could have done with less of the voguish drone shots which seemed at odds with the realistic approach adopted elsewhere plus I found the soundtrack dull and again lacking affinity with the era portrayed.I doubt this film will gain wide distribution but hope it does. It's an excellent drama, the tragedy of which is how realistically it depicted a tragically avoidable real life accident.

soupanova-96207 Fails to explain who the Kennedys were, or why they were important.Boring first 12 minutes with no decent character development, just exposition and references to events not explained or portrayed.Wastes the good talent (Kate Mara and Bruce Dern)Casts comedians in 2 crucial roles. Ed Helms does his best, which kinda works, but wow is Jim Gaffigan miscast. Why would you choose comedians for these roles?Character development is non-existent.Disrespects Ted Kennedy almost as much as the audience. For no perceptible reason. (I know very little about him, but this fiction definitely hates him)(or maybe it doesn't, and it's just the incompetent film-making?)I watched this because the reviews were pretty good. I am shocked at how much I was lied to. This is not good. The production design and production quality looks great, that's the only reason I don't give this a lower rating.