Movie Review: Chappaquiddick, starring Jason Clarke and Kate Mara, directed by John Curran (2017)

Jason Clarke as Ted Kennedy and Kate Mara as Mary Jo Kopechne in Chappaquiddick, directed by John Curran.

Director John Curran’s film Chappaquiddick examines the 1969 car accident that took the life of Mary Jo Kopechne and derailed the Presidential aspirations of Ted Kennedy. Chappaquiddick is an excellent film that does not overly sensationalize its subject matter and does not present any far-fetched theory about what actually transpired. The Chappaquiddick incident has been the subject of other works of art as well, including Joyce Carol Oates’ 1992 novella Black Water, which I reviewed here. 

We will never know the truth of exactly what happened when Ted’s car went off of Dike Bridge, but Chappaquiddick presents us with a version of the story that feels true. As the film opens, Kennedy (superbly played by Jason Clarke) is leaving Washington, D.C. to race in the Edgartown Regatta that Friday afternoon. After the regatta, there will be a party at a cottage on Chappaquiddick Island for the “Boiler Room Girls,” a group of women who worked for Bobby Kennedy’s 1968 Presidential campaign. Among these women is the 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, portrayed by Kata Mara. Kopechne is single and serious about her political work. 

In the film, Ted and Mary Jo leave the party to talk—about Bobby, about politics, about Ted not trying to claim the Presidential nomination at the previous year’s Democratic Party Convention in Chicago. This conversation is speculation on the filmmaker’s part but it feels plausible. Then the crucial moment occurs. As Ted comes to a fork in the road, and is startled by a police car driven by an off-duty deputy sheriff, Mary Jo says, “We should go back to the party.” Ted replies, “We should go to the beach.” And then the accident happens, as Kennedy’s car goes off the bridge, flips over and lands on its roof in Poucha Pond. Somehow Kennedy was able to escape, but Mary Jo was not able to. 

The film shows Kennedy going back to the party and enlisting the aid of his friends Joe Gargan (Ed Helms) and Paul Markham (Jim Gaffigan). The three drive to the scene of the accident, and Gargan and Markham attempt to rescue Mary Jo from the car, but are unsuccessful. They tell Ted he must report the accident, and he promises to. However, when they encounter Ted the next morning as he is about to sit down to breakfast, he admits that he hasn’t reported the accident. Finally, as his car is being dragged out of the pond, he calls the police. 

Chappaquiddick then shows the damage control that went on, as Gargan shepherds everyone at the cottage out before the police realize that there was a party at which a dozen people were present. Kennedy is allowed to sit in the police station and write out a statement that left many questions unanswered. But the police chief doesn’t interrogate or arrest Ted. 

Throughout the movie, we observe how Ted’s status as a Senator, and as a Kennedy, protects him from the worst-case scenarios. He isn’t arrested, he isn’t charged with vehicular manslaughter, and when he pleads guilty to the crime of leaving the scene of an accident, he receives the minimum sentence, which is suspended, meaning that he won’t have to go to jail. One wonders how the authorities would have handled Kennedy’s case had it occurred in a state other than Massachusetts.

One of the most telling lines in the movie is when one of the Boiler Room Girls learns of the accident from Gargan and bluntly says “How can we help the Senator?” That shows how far people were willing to go to protect Kennedy from anything that might damage him. 

The film then shows us the discussions of the inner circle of Kennedy confidants, which included former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and longtime JFK speechwriter Ted Sorensen. There is much deliberation about what Ted should say publicly and much concern over how the story can be spun in the most beneficial way. There are moments of the movie that are darkly humorous, as when Ted wants to wear a neck brace to Kopechne’s funeral. Gargan tries to wrestle the brace off of Kennedy and shouts at him, “You are not a victim!” 

The biggest historical inaccuracy in Chappaquiddick is the portrayal of Joe Kennedy, Sr. Played by Bruce Dern, who has always done a great job of playing jerks, (see the 1974 version of The Great Gatsby) Joe is depicted as being very harsh to Ted. This is the filmmaker’s way of showing the intense familial obligations that Ted Kennedy was under—he had to live up to the legacy of all his brothers—Joe Jr., who died in WWII, and also Jack and Bobby. Even Jack had to live up to the legacy of Joe Jr., as it was assumed Joe Jr. would be the family politician—Jack was thinking about going into journalism before Joe Jr. was killed. The film shows Ted calling his father late at night after the accident, and Joe Sr. telling Ted just one word—“alibi.” That simply did not happen. Joe had suffered a severe stroke in 1961, which limited his ability to communicate. He certainly couldn’t say “alibi,” or tell Ted “I’ll never be proud of you,” as he does in the film. For all of Ted’s failings, after Bobby’s death he had become the de facto patriarch of the Kennedy family and Joe knew that. 

In the Boston Globe, Jenna Russell points out this inaccuracy, and she writes of Joe Sr.’s real reaction to Chappaquiddick: “(In fact, Joe’s nurse Rita Dallas later said the patriarch — crippled by a stroke, and nearing death — took Ted’s hand and held it to his chest when he learned of the accident.)” (“How Much of Chappaquiddick is Actually True?” by Jenna Russell, April 4, 2018)

Ted considered resigning from the Senate, but ultimately ended up giving a nationally televised speech a week after the accident where he asked the people of Massachusetts if he should continue in office or not. It was a self-pitying speech, similar in some ways to Richard Nixon’s famous “Checkers” speech from 1952, in which Nixon, then the Republican candidate for Vice President, and facing a scandal over a campaign fund, urged the public to say if he should stay on the ticket or not. (Spoiler alert: Nixon stayed on the ticket.) 

In true Nixonian fashion, Ted said in the speech that he had been diagnosed with a concussion and was suffering from shock, but did not seek to use those medical issues as an excuse for his behavior. It’s a perfect rhetorical tactic, to mention a shortcoming and then say that you don’t want to use that shortcoming as an excuse. 

Ultimately, the voters of Massachusetts re-elected Kennedy in 1970. Kennedy’s percentage of the vote was down from the 74% that he won in 1964, but he still beat his opponent handily, 62% to 37%. Kennedy would serve in the Senate until his death in 2009. Ted eventually became a much more effective Senator than either Jack or Bobby had been. And while Ted’s career included many significant legislative accomplishments, Chappaquiddick will always cast a shadow over his life.