Directed by: John Curran
Starring: Jason Clarke, Kate Mara, Ed Helms, Bruce Dern, Clancy Brown, Jim Gaffigan, John Fiore, Taylor Nichols
If the events of July 18, 1969 happened to anyone without the power, wealth, and political influence of Sen. Ted Kennedy, that person would've been thrown in prison for twenty years without a second glance from the judge or prosecutor. And it would have been the correct call. Chappaquiddick coldly documents how a terrible accident resulting in the death of Mary Jo Copechne became a referendum to Massachusetts voters on Ted Kennedy's political future. Kennedy and his damage control staff, all friends of Kennedy's father Joseph, managed to steer the narrative to the point that Copechne's death became a mere footnote in the scandal. Yes, the incident torpedoed Kennedy's chance of ever becoming President, but he never served a day in jail for offenses which an average person would easily have been convicted.
Chappaquiddick's view is simple: If you have the money and the resources, you can come out relatively unscathed on the other side of a terrible situation. The movie, directed by John Curran, doesn't make the mistake of trying to make us sympathize with Kennedy. It sees his actions, and his inactions, in stark terms. The movie's moral center is Joe Gargan (Helms), Kennedy's cousin and lawyer whose advice for Kennedy to do the right thing is either shouted down or disregarded. It is said before the closing credits that Gargan soon became estranged from the Kennedy family, and it is little wonder why.
For those who don't know about the infamous scandal: Sen. Ted Kennedy (Clarke) was involved in a car accident in the early morning hours of July 18, 1969 when his car flew off a bridge and crashed into a pond after overturning in mid-air. Kennedy swam to safety while his passenger, 28-year-old campaign secretary Mary Jo Copechne (Mara), drowned. Kennedy said in a carefully prepared statement later on that he attempted to save Mary Jo, but we can't necessarily believe that. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. In any event, he left the scene, walked back to the party he left with Mary Jo, and only roughly 10 hours later, after a shower, nap, and breakfast, did Kennedy bother to report the accident to any authorities. His report was actually a written statement which the local police chief accepted without further inquiry, which is also an example of what privilege can get you. The chief, who had just spent hours at the crime scene diving into the muck to determine what happened, all but genuflected in Kennedy's presence.
Kennedy's self-servitude controlled the spin and the media coverage from the outset, which benefited from the event's proximity to the Apollo 11 moon landing of July 20. His father, bed-ridden and wheelchair-bound as the result of a stroke, musters out one word, "Alibi", when his son calls him shortly after the accident. Favors are called in and within a week, Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, but was not charged with anything else. The whole matter was behind him in less than seven days. No muss, no fuss for Kennedy, but meanwhile Mary Jo lay dead in a grave in North Jersey. Oh, and then the matter of a self-serving, whoa is me, address to the nation shortly after, in which Kennedy, instead of resigning, decided to let Massachusetts voters determine whether he should remain a senator. They determined yes and Kennedy went on to serve the fourth-longest term of any senator in U.S. history. There was always the cloud of Chappaquiddick hanging over him, but it seemed to be a mere occasional nuisance than a crisis of guilt.
Chappaquiddick is not as much about the accident, but the aftermath, as we witness how Kennedy wormed his way out of any real trouble. Jason Clarke gives us a nuanced performance of a man whose better instincts were overridden by the desire to maintain a political career, and if the movie is to be believed, was forever trying to prove his worth to his less-than-adoring father (Dern), who treats his son with scorn and shame. These are not excuses or even justifications, but apparent facts, and it tempers one's enthusiasm for Kennedy's Senate career, which included many victories for liberal causes and important legislation. But we can not embrace Ted Kennedy for his successes, because there is always the "but" in the form of Chappaquiddick, and more importantly the death of Mary Jo Copechne, which he never truly had to answer for and was barely acknowledged except in perfunctory expressions of sorrow and attending her funeral in a phony neck brace. If you think somehow we've evolved from the idea of wealth, whiteness, and privilege not factoring in to how criminal suspects are treated, you need to look no further than the case of rapist Brock Turner, a 20-year-old white man whose rape of an unconscious girl on a college campus, drew a favorable, lenient sentence from a judge who didn't want to ruin Turner's life while in no way caring about how his victim's life was already ruined.
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