Bobby

What’s the Story?

Despite its title, BOBBY isn't really about Bobby Kennedy (who appears in archival footage). Instead, it follows a loose group of characters staying at L.A.'s Ambassador Hotel on June 4, 1968, the day that Kennedy was assassinated. Using Kennedy as a symbol for what might have been -- clips from his speeches emphasize his inspiration and vitality -- the movie lays out the problems he might have solved in the lives of its troubled characters as they deal with issues of race, marriage, infidelity, politics, the Vietnam War, and the era's enlightenment via psychedelic drugs. As in Crash, separate stories overlap and occasionally collide. The star-studded cast includes Laurence Fishburne, Christian Slater, William H. Macy, Sharon Stone, Heather Graham, Elijah Wood, Lindsay Lohan, Demi Moore), Emilio Estevez, Helen Hunt), Martin Sheen), Anthony Hopkins, Harry Belafonte, Shia LeBeouf, and Ashton Kutcher.

Is It Any Good?

Bobby looks back with sadness and frustration, drawing clear connections to current events (the war in Iraq, troubled elections, continuing racial tensions). But it also offers resilient, even stubborn hope. If only we could remember the promise of 1968, Bobby proposes, we might find ourselves again. As the stories overlap and characters occasionally collide, director Emilio Estevez's very sincere, liberal-leaning, and occasionally flat-footed movie remembers RFK with reverence, feeling nostalgia for a promise unfulfilled.

While the many storylines vary in effectiveness and predictability, the finale -- Kennedy's arrival the hotel and the violence that follows -- is undeniably moving (even if the use of Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence" is decidedly heavy-handed). As the crowd gathered in the ballroom sees all too plainly, hopes abruptly run up against disappointment.