Years before Watergate, the name Chappaquiddick became shorthand for political scandal. While the world was celebrating the 1969 moon landing by Apollo 11 astronauts — the legacy of John Kennedy’s belief in space exploration — the late president’s younger brother was in the midst of a devastating fall from grace.
Taking its name from the Massachusetts island where Ted Kennedy drove his car off a bridge, resulting in the death of his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, the movie “Chappaquiddick” dramatizes that incident and its scandalous fallout, portraying Kennedy as a complex, contradictory figure. The Kennedy dynasty has its share of admirers and critics alike, and — to the film’s credit — director John Curran and his screenwriters do not appease either camp.