The Kennedys

Joke!  We weren’t labouring under the misapprehension that this was quality.  No US airtime and the presence of Mrs Cruise do not auger well.  Just had to note the continuing plunge of Tom Wilkinson (daddy Joe K) from sublime to ridiculous.  We thought he’d hit bottom with ‘Cassandra’s Dream’ but no, apparently not.  Is the mortgage that large, Mr W?  We can forgive the young, who probably do have a largeish mortgage, a career to establish and contacts to make.  We can forgive the not very successful, for obvious reasons, and also the ageing, for whom there are less parts about than they deserve.   (We can also forgive Pauline McGlynn for joining ‘Shameless’ some years after it was interesting, because she’s Mrs Doyle and we WILL we WILL forgive her anything.  Nobody mention Twitter, please....)  But what’s your excuse Mr W, for breaking our hearts?  Why not just take on the lead in a revival/remake of ‘Heartbeat’ and have done with it?  Do we need to dedicate a page to good actors in rubbish?  It would expand to a whole blog....

In common with a good percentage of the population, we have some interest in the Camelot years, and what sort of mob-funded, moll-fuelled shenanigans went on behind the glamorous facade.  There's no shortage of biographies, no dearth of film portrayals, so why churn out this schmaltzy, turgid affair which seems to have used 'Dynasty' as its template?  Delving into the realms of fantasy may be excused when it comes to JFK's assassination, since if anybody knows the truth, they aren't shouting about it and showing proof.  Character assassination is another matter, cutting both ways.  Joe Jr here is played in such a way that viewers are relieved when he gets killed.  Mother Rose is a fanatical, wet, if loving mother, rather than the cold fish she is generally described as by biographers.  As for the real Jackie, her flaws make her fascinating and somewhat sympathetic - there's little doubt she married a man likely to behave like her adored, faithless father knowing fully what life as Mrs Kennedy would be like.  In this, she behaves like any Mills and Boon heroine, believing in true love and confiding in, of all people, Joe Sr about her love life.  Bobby is depicted as about as good as it's possible to get without a halo appearing, which even those who love him must find a little disturbing.  And still well over four hours to go....

Maybe we get the media we deserve.  It's ironic that the aura of the Kennedys in their campaign and White House years was part of the ever-increasing love of image, of vacuous celebrity that replaces any attempt to convey the political issues debated, defended or decried.  Viewers unfamiliar with the details of the administration and what it stood for will come away with ambition, adultery and spin.  There will always be things to be explored about the life and legacy of the Kennedys, as long as there is interest in the US and its place on the world stage through history, but we suggest that badly-dramatized biopics is not a happy medium.