Review: Bobby


A day in the life of several staff and inhabitants of the Ambassador Hotel in LA. But this is no ordinary day. It is the day that Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Among the characters we meet (whose stories sometimes intertwine) are; former doorman Sir Anthony Hopkins who still hangs around so he can play chess with old friend Harry Belafonte. Shrill, drunk lounge singer Demi Moore and her long-suffering husband Emilio Estevez. Hotel manager William H. married to manicurist Sharon Stone (one of her better performances, though not saying much), but schtupping switchboard operator Heather Graham. Hispanic dishwasher Freddy Rodriguez has tickets to an important Dodgers game but can’t go because his racist boss Christian Slater has him working a double shift, so he gives the tickets to wise and friendly chef Laurence Fishburne. Shia LaBeouf is a Kennedy campaign worker who buys LSD from Ashton Kutcher (!). A far too contemporary Lindsay Lohan plays a young woman who agrees to marry long-time friend Elijah Wood so he doesn’t have to go to Nam. Finally, Martin Sheen is the loving husband to Helen Hunt, a seemingly obsessive-compulsive woman who simply must have a pair of black shoes to go with her dress (yes, this really is a story strand, people!).

 

Sincere, potentially fascinating 2006 flick from writer/director/co-star Emilio Estevez, who previously directed himself and his brother Charlie in the much underrated comedy “Men at Work” back in 1990, and directed himself and then girlfriend Demi Moore in the forgettable “Wisdom” back in 1986. Unfortunately, Estevez tells the story in just about the least effective manner possible. It’s a mixture of all-star Robert Altman flick and all-star Irwin Allen disaster flick (think “The Towering Inferno” or the non-Allen granddaddy of all multi-story ensemble pieces, “Grand Hotel”), and as a result there are some characters more interesting (Macy, Slater- playing the most 3-D character in the film, Fishburne, Wood) than others (Hunt, LaBeouf, Cannon, Rodriguez, Moore, Graham), some performances better (Macy, Hopkins, Belafonte, Fishburne, Sheen- the latter making lemonade out of a lemon) than others (Moore- hideous, Hunt- far too actory, Kutcher- ridiculous, Lohan- completely unconvincing).

 

Overall, there’s not nearly enough interesting stories and characters to keep one particularly engaged. The director even gives himself one of the least-developed and least interesting roles in the film (and doesn’t play it terribly compellingly, either. Shockingly bad finale too, by the way. Shame, because it’s nice to see the underrated Estevez back in mainstream cinema (in my opinion, he was always the most talented ‘official’ Brat Packer), and the idea of a Bobby Kennedy biopic seemed like a can’t miss notion.

 

Rating: C+

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