‘CHAPPAQUIDDICK’

PG-13 1:41 ½H

John Curran’s “Chappaquiddick” plunges us back into the summer of 1969: the season of Woodstock, the moon landing, the Manson murders and the lowest ebb of the Kennedy mythology.

It was six years since the assassination of John F. Kennedy and a year since Bobby was gunned down. But the Kennedy machine churned on. Edward M. (“Teddy”) Kennedy, already seven years a senator having filled his brother’s Massachusetts seat, was Joseph Kennedy’s only living son left and a likely future president.

Those aspirations effectively crashed when 37-year-old Teddy drove an Oldsmobile off a narrow bridge on a remote beach road on Chappaquiddick Island, off Martha’s Vineyard, late at night on July 18. With him was 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign worker for Bobby (played by Kate Mara in the film), who died underwater. Kennedy escaped from the car, submerged in eight feet of water. Whatever his efforts were to free Kopechne, they were futile. It took him 10 hours to report the incident to the police. Kennedy attributed the delay to a concussion and exhaustion.

Jason Clarke, the Australian actor of “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” plays Kennedy. Clarke’s performance — stout, nuanced, understated almost to a fault — is an unexpected relief. Clarke carries himself with the assumed importance and natural magnetism of a Kennedy.

Curran’s film is principally an effort to visualize and understand that evening. It’s a low-key, generally absorbing if somewhat lackluster procedural that ominously reflects on the darker shadows that loom behind even the brightest shining political hopes.

Starring: Kate Mara, Clancy Brown, Olivia Thirlby and Jason Clarke. (Thematic material, disturbing images, some strong language, and historical smoking)

— Jake Coyle, Associated Press