“The hope rises again and the dream lives on!”

From Chappaquiddick.

In the middle of July 1969, Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy (Jason Clarke) held a reunion party on Chappaquiddick Island for all of the secretaries involved with his brother Bobby’s campaign.  After a stressful day and a night of drinking and reminiscing, Ted gives one young secretary, Mary Jo Kopechne (Kate Mara), a ride around the island.  Intoxicated and distracted, Ted misses a turn for a bridge and flips the car into the water; somehow Kennedy is able to escape the car, but Mary Jo does not.  What follows is a crazy dash to cover up Ted’s involvement in the matter.  His father (Bruce Dern) brings in lawyers and consultants to protect Ted’s reputation and his availability for the President’s office in the future.  This quickly develops into a moral dilemma for Ted as he becomes a man trapped between his family legacy and his desire to do right by Mary Jo; his father fights to keep Ted’s eligibility for the presidency available, while his cousin (Ed Helms) fights to keep Ted’s humanity alive.

This is an interesting movie based on the previously untold story in the history of the Kennedy family.  Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the film is to watch Clarke’s Kennedy struggle with his moral/political dilemma; his confusion and indecision are easy to see as he struggles with what to do throughout the movie.  Even though she has a fairly small role Mara does a great job of making her character and the importance of her death memorable for the entire movie.  The costume and set design add to the immersive quality, easily adding an extra layer to the story’s captivation quality.  While low in action, this movie is fairly suspenseful; the events and cover-up unfold in a slower, but determined pace.  Chappaquiddick is a political thriller that provides an interesting look at an event in history and causes viewers to question just what really happened on that little island in Massachusetts all those years ago.

| Rated: PG-13 | Running Time: 101 minutes |Genre: biography/drama |

||Family Viewing||Cursing: 4* of 10|Nudity: 0 of 10|Sexuality: 0 of 10|Gore: 2 of 10

|AVAILABLE FOR HOME VIEWING|