Bobby

"Bobby" is a storyline with ADD. There are so many different players doing so many different things it's hard to pay attention, or care, about any one specific thread. Solid acting from everyone, though, does make the experience watchable.

Don't be confused as to what this movie is about. It is NOT about the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. Rather, it is about the people at the Ambassador Hotel on the day that RFK is killed. We follow over 20 different characters from the early morning of that June 1968 day until the bullets eventually land in multiple victims. The theme of "Bobby" seems to focus on the dreams and ambitions people of all ages, races, and backgrounds have under a Kennedy presidency. Just like the country at the time, each player is searching for meaning, purpose, and potential. While they each struggle, they see the idealism of Bobby as their way out.

I tried to count exactly how many storylines were occurring but found it to be an impossible task. Some highlights include Demi Moore as an alcoholic lounge singer, Ashton Kutcher as a hippie passing LSD to two young Democratic campaigners, Freddy Rodriguez as the Latino busboy with tickets to watch Don Drysdale throw his sixth straight shutout, and Sharon Stone as the hairstylist wife of William H. Macy. Others include Elijah Wood (still looking like Frodo), Joshua Jackson, Helen Hunt, Martin Sheen, Laurence Fishburne, and Harry Belafonte. With a small on-screen role, but a much larger behind-the-scenes player as writer and director, is Emilio Estevez.

Just when I thought I didn't care about the characters, we see them all converge in the ballroom to hear Bobby speak. What follows is the singular event that binds them together. While the culmination may sound like "Crash", the end result is far from it. The tone of the upheaval in the nation is reiterated time and again, and some of the characters are far too stereotypical. In the end, I did learn that others were shot in the kitchen besides Bobby, and was left wondering what would have happened if he had made it out of Los Angeles alive. I didn't need so many other pieces of the puzzle all around me to put that picture together. I give it a B.

"Bobby" is rated R with a running time of 2 hours.