The true story of that fateful night in 1969, when America’s “golden boy” Ted Kennedy left an innocent woman to drown in a car (allegedly), is finally getting its moment. Thankfully, the critics are not getting in its way.
Indeed, the movie “Chappaquiddick” has received a “certified fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with 74% positive reviews, many coming from top film critics.
“Here is a family that entrenched itself in the American imagination by campaigning on symbolism, and Chappaquiddick hits its better strides when it turns the camera on the relationship between its stars and script doctors,” said Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of AV Club.
“A challenging character study, punctuated by moments of uneasy suspense and dark humor,” said Alan Zilberman of The Washington Post.
“‘Chappaquiddick’ is exactly what you want it to be: a tense, scrupulous, absorbingly precise and authentic piece of history – a tabloid scandal attached to a smoke-filled-room travesty,” said Owen Gleiberman of Variety.
The film has its share of negative reviews, of course, but those focused strictly on the film’s aesthetic and execution, leaving partisan politics at the door in favor of objectivity. Only CNN made any real attempt to downplay the film’s subject events; they described the incident as just “one of Sen. Ted Kennedy’s darkest hours,” as if borderline murder was somehow equal among the litany of scandals that could befall a politician.
On one fateful night in 1969, Ted Kennedy allegedly drove a car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island in Martha’s Vineyard. As the movie unflinchingly portrays, Kennedy left the scene of the accident, abandoning his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, to drown alone. Rather than call for help, Kennedy instead went home to focus on covering up the incident. A whole 10 hours would pass before Kennedy officially reported the accident. Evidence would later show that Kopechne could have possibly survived had Kennedy sought immediate help.
Last week, as the film’s debut loomed closer, Byron Allen, Entertainment Studios CEO and executive producer of the film, said “very powerful” people pressured him not to release the movie.
“Unfortunately, there are some very powerful people who tried to put pressure on me not to release this movie,” Allen said. “They went out of their way to try and influence me in a negative way. I made it very clear that I’m not about the right, I’m not about the left. I’m about the truth.”
Good thing then that those “very powerful” people spent all their money on coercing Allen to shelve the movie rather than paying off critics to sink its Rotten Tomatoes rating.