"Bobby" Focuses on Background, Misses Target

"Bobby," one of the two films in the CAC Double Feature Weekend, relies on its connection to the past. A film lacking significant insight of its own, it draws on the words of its so-called main character, Robert Kennedy.

The film opens with its strongest subject, the social movements of the '60s and through extension, Bobby Kennedy. After a series of historical footage, we realize that the film isn't going to follow his life specifically, as it shifts to various people connected with the Ambassador Hotel, where Kennedy was assassinated.

All of the storylines are populated with stars, including names like Anthony Hopkins, Martin Sheen, Laurence Fishborne, Lindsay Lohan, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore…the list could go on. Unfortunately, the film doesn't give enough time to any of the storylines, causing a lack of character depth.

Each of the many storylines is painted in broad, stereotypical swaths. The marriage of convenience in order to save the husband from Vietnam is there (she even falls in love with him), as are the drunken wreck of a former star, the old manager that's given his life to his hotel, the college kids trying LSD for the first time, the Latino waiters learning how to live as part of a minority in America, the depressed older couple learning to love again, the young headstrong politically conscious college aids to Kennedy, and even a ridiculously foreign female reporter from Czechoslovakia.

Notice how long that list is? Very few of the ideas are original in any way, and most end in the perfect, expected storybook ending. This lack of originality is compounded by the lack of time spent on each one. Unlike other movies of the same format, like "Love Actually," that spend two to three hours expanding on their myriad plotlines, "Bobby" is only an hour and a half long. This means that whatever attempts are made at depth of characterization are few and ineffective.

The movie continues on like this until the last 15 minutes, when we are rudely shaken from the happy endings of our multiple groups by the appearance of the assassin. Like any clichéd assassin, he is small, slight and shaky, bumping against people because of his total concentration on his mission. At this point we're reminded of both Bobby Kennedy and his impending doom. While he's been in the background the entire time, pieced into the story with old tapes of speeches, it is only now that the story is actually about him.

Every time that Kennedy is in the story, we are reminded of the undeniable parallels between his age and ours. Not only this, but we, as a generation too young to have heard his message, are shown the tragic loss of our country when he was assassinated.

It is this part of the film that we are drawn to. Due purely to Kennedy's dreams and aspirations, instead of any aspect of the film itself, it succeeds on some level. His poignant speeches and rampant idealism feel necessary in the world, both then and now.