Despite Bobby's much-ballyhooed all-star cast, the film's strengths are delivered by a two-man show: The passion and restraint of writer-director-costar Emilio Estevez, and the understated yet overwhelming presence of Robert F. Kennedy himself.

Story

In his effort to recall and contrast the enthusiastic optimism that surrounded the presidential campaign of RFK with the heartbreaking, illusion-shattering reality of his assassination, Estevez wisely bypasses conventional biopic storytelling or…

Sign me up for any film that reflects the burgeoning idealism of Robert Kennedy when he ran for the presidency. At the climax of Bobby, when the senator is shot by Sirhan Sirhan in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5th, 1968, we hear RFK's words about "the divisions, the violence, the disenchantment with society." It's a resonant speech that deserved a real movie to flesh out its history.

What we get instead is real tragedy attached to trite fiction. Writer-director…