The tribute drama “Bobby” is structured like the big star-studded, day-in-the-life-of pictures from Hollywood’s Golden Age like “Dinner at Eight” and “Grand Hotel.”
But despite its well-meaning purpose and marquee-busting cast, this fictionalized look at the periphery behind a fateful episode in modern history plays more like a serviceable TV movie. Through the invented point of view of minor surrounding players there that night, writer-director Emilio Estevez imagines the hours leading up to and including the assassination of Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy at Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel in the summer of 1968. The forgotten importance and inherent tragedy of that world-changing event, unfortunately, doesn’t make for a major epic event movie in this case.
“Bobby” has its moments, though. And a few of them exude unintentional high camp. There’s considerable scenery chewing going on between Demi Moore as an alcoholic lounge singer torturing her manager spouse (Estevez) and Sharon Stone as a tacky hairdresser being cheated on by her hotel manager husband (William H. Macy). Never has bad ‘60s fashion been worked into the ground like this.
Between Moore and Stone and their fellow faded 40-something Helen Hunt, as a desperate housewife married to a RFK backer (Martin Sheen), it was a perverse contest as to which of the three emaciated divas had the most haggard-looking mug. The gals should join forces and put a contract out on the movie’s cinematographer — or their plastic surgeons.
Some of the many thousands of other storylines here had more credibility. It was a thrill to see old lions Anthony Hopkins and Harry Belafonte interacting on screen together as weathered symbols of the bygone past. A plot thread set in the hotel’s kitchen with Laurence Fishburne as a black cook, “Six Feet Under’s” Freddy Rodriguez as an Hispanic waiter and Christian Slater as their white racist boss deals with the issue of social injustice which was so vital to the Kennedy legacy. Rodriguez is especially moving here as a hardworking, assimilated American who transcends the oppression he suffers.
“Dawson’s Creek’s” Joshua Jackson plays a campaign honcho while the funny and accessible Shia LaBeouf plays one of his volunteers.
As a representative ‘60s youth, LaBeouf drops acid that fateful day — thanks to his hippie pusher played by an over-the-top Ashton Kutcher. Meanwhile, two other members of that generation, played by Lindsay Lohan and ElijahWood, are getting married to keep Wood’s draftee character from getting assigned to a tour in Vietnam.
The younger folks give the movie its energy, communicating that they were the ones most shaped by RFK’s inspirational message. But it’s only in the violent climax, spliced with bits of actual documentary footage and sound recordings from the icon, that the production has power.
“Bobby” could have used more Bobby and fewer Tinseltown types.
‘Bobby’
Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Freddy Rodriguez, William H. Macy, Martin Sheen, Lindsay Lohan and Demi Moore
Director: Emilio Estevez
Rated: R for language, drug content and a scene of violence
