ROGER DONALDSON
Bil’s rating (out of 5): BB.
USA, 2000. New Line Cinema, Beacon Communications, Beacon Pictures, Tig Productions. Screenplay by David Self, based on the book The Kennedy Tapes – Inside The White House During The Cuban Missile Crisis by Ernest R. May, Philip D. Zelikow. Cinematography by Andrzej Bartkowiak. Produced by Peter O. Almond, Armyan Bernstein, Kevin Costner. Music by Trevor Jones. Production Design by J. Dennis Washington. Costume Design by Isis Mussenden. Film Editing by Conrad Buff IV.
It seems the effort the producers put into making the film accurate to its events (roughly those involving the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962) were so intense that they forgot to actually make it interesting. Bruce Greenwood puts so much concentration into making an effective John F. Kennedy that he misses out on the man’s charisma (I mean come on Bruce, the man must have had some charisma to get Marilyn to wear that dress!), and Kevin Costner just looks tired throughout the whole thing. Scene after scene after scene of endless talking hardly pays off in the end and the result is a giant clunker that will only interest those who have something invested in the events the film is portraying. Steven Culp‘s performance as Robert Kennedy is the film’s best asset and the only dead-on performance.
