Bobby

I thought I would make some kind of tiny statement to the world and go and see a movie by myself tonight while the masses drooled in front of their televisions watching grown men chase a ball around.

Fittingly City Cinema was more jammed than I've ever seen it on a Sunday night. Lots of people with the same idea of doing something different, I'm sure.

As for the movie, I had heard some pretty critical reviews of it, but I've always been fascinated by Robert Kennedy so I thought I should see the film anyway. It turned out to be less terrible than I had feared it might be going in, but still not great by any stretch.

The acting was top-notch from everyone. Only a few characters got the 'perfect model of a human being' treatment. The rest were all both good and bad, selfish, weak, inconsiderate at times, unsure of themselves. The way the idea of Bobby Kennedy actually becoming president representing this great hope in all of their lives that there might actually be a future better than the present was ever-present as we see the various unfolding subplots.

Unfortunately this wasn't up there with films like Traffic or Robert Altman's films in weaving a greater story from a series of small ones. At the end we're left with memories of a few simple stories that never quite built on each other well enough.

This just makes me wish for a more focused biopic of Robert Kennedy's life. I hope this film doesn't hurt the chances of something like that being made in the near future.

Labels: Bobby, City Cinema, Movies, Reviews