Matar a Kennedy

This is Bill O'Reilly's take on the assassination of President Kennedy. Maybe there's a greater depth in the book, but the movie is a fairly superficial examination of Kennedy (Rob Lowe) and Lee Harvey Oswalt (Will Rothhaar). Two TV hours with all the commercials is just not enough to do a deep look into two big characters like Kennedy and Oswalt.

There isn't much new here for Kennedy. It's a well traveled path. Of course Bill puts in all the hot button topics about the womanizing and the drug injections. Rob Lowe does little more than mimicry. Ginnifer Goodwin doesn't have the regal stature of Mrs Kennedy. Any number of other movies make a more compelling portrait. For example, the Cuban missile crisis was done better in Thirteen Days (2000).

My hope was for the Oswalt half. They could give him a depth that isn't out there in any movie. But I think Will Rothhaar does a relatively bland job. Michelle Trachtenberg does a much better job. Her role in the family is absolutely fascinating. The movie really needed to concentrate more on the Oswalts and sideline the Kennedys.

The technicals are relatively good for a TV movie. The style is still unimaginative. For the budget, we can't expect much more. It certainly doesn't have the tension or the suspense. We get nothing but the simplified highlights.