Chappaquiddick shines a light on an old US scandal

After more than 50 years, a film has been released that shines a light on the notorious July 1969 Chappaquiddick accident, in which a young woman, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned when Senator Ted Kennedy drove his car off the infamous bridge.

Many of the facts surrounding the incident are shrouded in mystery and and there’s room for a lot of speculation. What emerges here is an absorbing slice of imaginative film-making.

Under director John Curran’s deft hand, the film is a sort of suspense drama wrapped in scandal and mystery. It’s a fascinating take on the whole affair, but runs a little dry towards the end.

Jason Clarke is convincing both physically and tonally as Ted Kennedy, whose presidential ambitions were thrown into turmoil the night he gave his campaign aide, Mary Jo Kopechne (Kate Mara), a lift to catch the ferry back to the mainland.

Kennedy got inebriated during a party in the Kennedy’s Chappaquiddick Island cottage and was in no condition to drive. But he did drive and the accident did happen. What transpired after that fleshes out the remainder of the film as his family and team of advisors tried desperately to avert his fall from grace with a master-class in political spin, damage control and image management.

Kopechne was an aspiring political strategist and a Kennedy insider but not much about her comes through in the film. The focus is strictly on Ted Kennedy whose colossal misjudgement ultimately changed the course of presidential history forever.

The fateful party took place at a cottage on Chappaquiddick Island (at the seaward end of Martha’s Vineyard), on the weekend of a small sailing regatta. It served as a reunion of the extended Kennedy family and party-goers included his hot-shot lawyer cousin, “Joey will fix it” Gargan (Ed Helms), and the like-minded state’s attorney (Jim Gaffigan).

Through true accounts, documented in the inquest from the investigation in 1969, director Curran and writers Andrew Logan and Taylor Allen, intimately expose the broad reach of political power, the influence of America’s most celebrated family, and the vulnerability of Ted Kennedy, the youngest son, who was living in the shadow of his family legacy.

Curran provides a generally straightforward account of the Moon Landing Week (July, 1969) car crash and the tragic after effects.

This cinematic enterprise at least puts a face and person behind a name that history has bandied about like a political football for all these decades — Mary Jo Kopechne.

Kate Mara shows Kopechne to be an idealist and a professional, who is still shattered by the untimely death of Bobby Kennedy the summer before. She displays compassion towarSet featured imageds the surviving Ted, who appears to shun the mantle his tyrannical dad Joe (Bruce Dern) has placed on him, by continuing his drinking, partying and womanising ways.

Taylor Allen plays Ted Sorensen, the veteran insider and family public relations strategist, while the formidable Clancy Brown is former Defence Secretary Robert McNamara, the take-charge guy.

Bruce Dern’s cameo as the patriarchal father, saddled in his wheel chair after having suffered a stroke, is somewhat grotesque, his face badly contorted as he tries to speak words of wisdom to his doomed son.

There’s a great deal we don’t know about the accident. While the film sometimes sensationalises the grey areas, the indisputable fact is that the Kennedy clan made sure the public would never know the full story.

Score: ★★★☆☆