Emilio Estevez’s (WAR AT HOME, RATED X) latest political drama is set during the 24 hours of June 4th 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles.  On that fateful evening in the kitchen of the Ambassador, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated.  The film brings together a large ensemble of characters affected by the hotel or the Kennedy campaign.

Credit goes to Estevez for assembling the best cast of actors for a film this year.  The stories in BOBBY include a fading star (Demi Moore with the most outrageous hairdo since Divine in PINK FLAMINGOES) and her husband (played by Estevez), hotel chief (William H. Macy) having a fling with a switchboard operator (Heather Graham) unknown to his wife (Sharon Stone), kitchen help Mexicans (Freddy Rodriguez from HARSH TIMES and Jacob Vargas), old doormen (Anthony Hopkins and Harry Belafonte) reminiscing the hotel’s past and a young couple (Elijah Wood and Lindsay Lohan) about to wed, just to list a few.  Unfortunately Estevez is no Robert Altman, the late king of ensemble films (THE PLAYER, NASHVILLE and the recent A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION).  Some of the stories work and some do not.  But it is the actors that breathe life into the vignettes rather than the script.  The best bits have the African American sous-chef (Laurence Fishburne) rattle his spill, Shakespeare style, on how he never gets double shift at the kitchen, a hardly recognizable Ashton Kutcher in flowery garb as the acid hippie and the young Kennedy volunteers (Shia La-Beouf and Brian Geraghty) who experience their first acid trip on the tennis court.  But my favourite role goes to Christian Slater playing the racist kitchen’s food and beverage manager.  Whether speaking his lines or just listening to the hotel chief firing him, his expressions and reactions are quite something else.  His racism is complex.  Whether he is truly racist is questionable as he is quite open and sympathetic after being fired and the reason for his behaviour is explained in the film as a necessity to keep the kitchen adequately staffed.

BOBBY contains a lot of Robert Kennedy election campaign footage interspersed with the current events.  The sets, wardrobe, hairdo and props effectively capture the atmosphere of 1968.  Various issues of the times are touched upon like the Vietnam War, voting procedures, Mexican immigration and the process of growing old.

BOBBY is at times, all over the place.  Too many characters and incidents appear unrelated to each other though they are linked together at the end.  I cannot figure the reason Estevez plays Simon and Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence in its entirety on the soundtrack except that Estevez must have loved this song from THE GRADUATE. (There is another reference in BOBBY of Anne Bancroft commented on for not showing her tits in THE GRADUATE.) But Estevez ends most of his segments on a high note, which lifts BOBBY out of the doldrums.  There is a balanced amount of human drama and lighter moments.  It gets preachy at the end and the audience is forced to listen to American or rather Kennedy politics laid out by Estevez.  Still, BOBBY contains a host of stars who deliver excellent performances.  This is sufficient pleasure for the price of an admission ticket.