John Curran has a light touch, though. The fact that he keeps craning his neck to look around exposes the bogus nature of his injury. (Bruce Dern plays Kennedy Sr, whose locked-in facial expression after his stroke is one of eternal disappointment.) Kennedy, known as the “lion of the Senate,” left a a proud legacy of activism during nearly five decades in office.

What probably happened is what we see in the film: an accident caused by booze and a panicked man hoping it would all go away. “Chappaquiddick” can be summed up by one of the first sentences uttered by Edward “Ted” Kennedy (Aussie actor Jason Clarke) after escaping from a sunken car that he drove off a bridge into shallow water on July 18, 1969: “I’m not going to be president.”Never mind that he was right. The next moment he’s gone down the cover-up rabbit hole and is an irredeemable swine. But in his privileged world, saving his own behind and preserving what’s left of the legacy of his family dynasty is his primary duty. He ultimately pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of a crash that caused personal injury and received a two-year suspended sentence. Thanks to the deep grain of ferocity and consuming frailty that Clarke builds into his performance we get inside Ted’s head. Then, minutes later, his car goes off the bridge at Chappaquiddick and plunges into the water. Jason Clarke is strong as the weak senator, and he wisely goes easy on replicating the unmistakable Massachusetts accent.

There has been salacious speculation for nearly a half-century about exactly what happened that summer night on a small island near Martha’s Vineyard when Ted, whose pregnant wife Joan was then on bedrest and would later miscarry, and five other married men held a reunion with six so-called “Boiler Room Girls.” The single young women, all in their 20s, worked on Bobby’s presidential campaign in a sweaty D.C. office space before he was killed in 1968. Chappaquiddick review – tragedy and trauma reign in Ted Kennedy biopic 4 / 5 stars 4 out of 5 stars. But Curran doesn’t share such specific details about the attendees. You will keep seeing her face as the events of the night unfold. But in 1969, though he was a powerful man on paper and next in line for the presidency, family insiders knew he was a joke. You have to creidt Mara for imbuing her few scenes with a warmth and vibrancy that rescues Mary Jo from the footnotes of history, allowing her to emerge as both a victim of tragedy and a human being whose life was senselessly lost. Director John Curran carefully sets the scene. What with Playboy Playmates and adult film stars taking top billing in ongoing political scandals, such tabloid-ish reports of bad behavior are starting to sound more like the plot of one of Russ Meyer’s X-rated sex-capades. He gives contradictory statements to the press and stupidly wears a neck brace to Mary Jo’s funeral to drum up sympathy. Indeed, the cruelest scenes are when things really kick into gear, as when the handlers at the Kennedy Compound start talking about securing this poor young woman’s body. Money, power, lies and cronyism have regularly provided a safety net against taking accountability for one’s morally askew acts while in office that often leave behind an ugly wake of human collateral damage. And what we see there is a man who knows he’ll never follow in his brother’s executive footsteps, who knows he’ll never get out from under the long shadow cast by his other siblings, who knows he’ll always be squirming inside his own skin. Ted and Kopechne pair off for a drive and the rest is history, even if we’ll never know what really happened. Jason Clarke impresses as the last Kennedy brother, whose reputation never recovered following the death of a young supporter in murky circumstances, Last modified on Mon 11 Sep 2017 22.19 BST. But viewers will likely provide their own insights into the material, given the constant bombardment of ethical issues faced by those currently in charge. By the end of his life, Senator Edward M Kennedy was “the lion of the Senate”, a sturdy marble column of American liberalism for close to 50 years. Was the senator’s long fight for the disenfranchised a way of seeking an elusive redemption? Through it all, Ted shows little remorse or concern over the dead woman, preferring to strategize with his team to preserve his reputation. And this film, an immersive if sometimes frustrating blend of fact and speculation, catches the congressman in his hour of greatest shame while facing a career-defining crisis of conscience. No attempt to rescue Mary Jo, who we later learn was alive for hours. As a character, he doesn’t possess the confident air and natural charisma of brothers John and Robert nor should he, especially given how he conducts himself in a time of grave crisis. If you think the title of this fact-based drama looks like how a hunter’s duck call might sound, you are likely too young to recall when the last surviving son of Joe and Rose found himself in a whole heap of self-inflicted trouble. Sign up for our newsletter. But for those who are drawn to re-creations of historical controversies that pack more gravitas and outright tragedy, “Chappaquiddick” could prove satisfying enough, especially with the in-vogue-again Kennedy clan at the center. Joe (capably captured by Bruce Dern), who requires a wheelchair, can barely breathe let alone speak after being partly paralyzed by a stroke. One moment we feel compassionate: he wants to do the right thing. One leaves Chappaquiddick, named after the island where the Kennedy associate Mary Jo Kopechne drowned at the bottom of a pond, awash in ambiguity. His final substantive act was giving the Obama daughters their pet dog. This is framed as John F Kennedy’s final action here on Earth and beyond. He emerges, and staggers back to the cottage. Robert Kennedy, who was supposed to be president, was the brilliant one. That renewed drive, the film implies, required both compromise and courage. Battle of the Sexes review – Emma Stone serves up rousing, timely tennis drama.

The role of Ted Kennedy is far from an easy one, especially for an actor from Down Under, given the necessary New England accent. Chappaquiddick suggests that Ted Kennedy was a broken, hollow, scared man in July 1969.

Before going to bed to sleep off his bender, Ted confers with his friend and lawyer Joe Gargan (Ed Helms), saying “I’m not going to be President.” He and Massachusetts Attorney General Paul Markham (Jim Gaffigan) urge the politician to report the incident. Kudos to the electrifying Australian actor Jason Clarke (Mudbound, Zero Dark Thirty) for playing Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy with a forceful urgency that avoids the trap of saint-or-sinner labels – an easy go-to when you’re portraying a member of America’s foremost political dynasty. These men manipulate the news media and pressure local authorities to cover up the nastier details and sell the accident theory.

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