Bobby is a period ensemble picture that tries hard to feel heartfelt, but instead comes off as anemic. Directed by Emilio Estevez, who even shows up a few times on-screen, Bobby tells the tale of the final day of RFK, but through the eyes of a few dozen other folks. Lindsay Lohan and Elijah Wood played my favorite pair of characters- Lilo plays a young girl who wants to marry a classmate of hers, despite the wishes of her family, to save his life from the draft of Vietnam. Elijah can tell that his bride to be may not love him, but she convinces him otherwise, which does lead to them embracing the fate and even experiencing some infatuation- I liked these two so much, I'd like to see a whole film about their characters.

Sharon Stone's role as a middle-aged hairdresser in The Ambassador Hotel (where this whole picture takes place) is her best role in a long, long time- she's not allowed to spread her legs, but instead find out that her Hotel Manager husband (William H. Macy, who phones in his performance) is having an affair with Switchboard operator Heather Graham (nothing notable here). Add Anthony Hopkins, Lawrence Fishburne, a worn out, slightly depressive couple played by Helen Hunt and Martin Sheen, Freddy Rodriguez, Demi Moore, Joshua Jackson (Charlie from 'Ducks', supporting Coach Bombay), Shia LeBouf, and a bunch of other actors, and you still don't have a stellar picture- Bobby feels like PT Anderson's Magnolia, but really wants to be Altman's Nashville- the sincerity and intent of the picture is completely lost until the final scene where the known tragic event happens. Only then do we really care about the well-being of all these fragmented people, and it's a bit too late for our sake nearly two hours down the line.

With a better script, Bobby could have been something other than a multiple segment feature for all these groups of characters, giving them 15 minutes spread through the film to spew their quotations that signify the times and the parallells to the present. It doesn't feel trite, but it becomes all too clear half-way through the film that this is Estevez' format. In the hands of a better director, this picture could have worked with the false script, but if RFK had never been shot, who knows what this world would be like. That is what the film is trying to convey and let us in on, as if you couldn't tell from the beginning.

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