The movie offers a convincing demonstration of how political mechanisms conspire to protect the powerful from their own mistakes.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 19, 2021

Some interesting moments here, but the film is one long pulled punch.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 17, 2021

A deftly executed examination of the man at the centre of the scandal and the psychological scars that come from being a Kennedy scion. In this, Clarke does a wonderful job at conveying the conflict brewing inside Ted.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 11, 2018

The film seems to me a fair-minded stab at the truth and an irresistible look at the exercise of dynastic influence.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 5, 2018

Chappaquiddick is the best film to date directed by John Curran.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 4, 2018

In the end Chappaquiddick will have to pass the same test as Kennedy's original version of the story-whether or not anyone will buy it.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 19, 2018

Clarke makes us feel plenty of things we'd rather not. His eyes are shadowed with profound decency one minute, and hollowed out in desperate calculation the next.

| Apr 12, 2018

The filmmakers seem to be concerned about preserving her innocence, just as the real-life Kennedy was. It may be a bit idealistic, but it's not a disservice.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 12, 2018

If you're looking for something to make you feel good about chubby, cherubic Ted, the venerable lion of the Senate, this is not your movie.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 10, 2018

A film of integrity and disclosure, a controversial chapter in American history that substitutes clinical accuracy for Hollywood embellishment, with an impressive attention to detail and an admirable respect for suspenseful narrative.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 10, 2018

Director John Curran's Chappaquiddick is a decent Cliff's Notes version of events, though it's hard not see sanitization masquerading as ambiguity.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 9, 2018

The sketches of Kennedy-family tensions and loyalties are thin and simplistic; the action rushes by with little insight or context.

| Apr 9, 2018

Chappaquiddick is heavy-handed history, a film that at times seems to owe as much to The X-Files as the many cinematic dives into the target-rich territory that is the Kennedy clan.

| Apr 6, 2018

Jason Clarke, the Australian actor (Mudbound, Zero Dark Thirty) is a fleshy, entitled and very convincing Teddy...

| Apr 6, 2018

For those who are drawn to re-creations of historical controversies that pack more gravitas and outright tragedy, Chappaquiddick could prove satisfying enough, especially with the in-vogue-again Kennedy clan at the center.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 6, 2018

A lucid, nuanced and compelling telling of the accident and its turbulent aftermath.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 6, 2018

This is yet another first-rate film from John Curran that should capture the attention of anyone who remembers the Ted Kennedy incident (as I do) as well as young people who want a credible slice of recent American history.

| Apr 6, 2018

Chappaquiddick isn't a harangue against Kennedy, but it does take a hard look at a man who was a revered stalwart of the Democratic party. The film works best as a character study, a profile of moral crisis, rather than any sort of true-crime expos.

| Apr 5, 2018

Chappaquiddick reminds us that without the Kennedy name and influence, the man who drove a car off a bridge, swam to shore and left a young woman to die, and then went into hiding and defense mode, should have gone to jail for a long time.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 5, 2018

Devoid of revelations, the film instead focuses on the creation and delivery of the narrative that Kennedy used to survive this calamity...It allows Chappaquiddick to become an example of the very thing it portrays.

| Apr 5, 2018