Lacking in drama and doesn't ring true

Rating: 5/10 (22 March 2009)

This film is supposed to portray the struggle of the Kennedy administration to face down the Soviet Union and avoid nuclear war. It's a momentous subject but this telling falls flat.
First, I don't buy the scenes of Kenny O'Donnell sharing the intimate discussions of the Kennedy brothers and offering stern and weighty advice. When you see the old photo's of Jack and Bobby at the White House they look a very self-sufficient little unit - not the type to need any kind of 'Special Adviser'. I particularly feel Bobby's role in the crisis has been undervalued here.
Second, there are only two real moments of drama in the whole film: Adlai Stevenson being told to "stick it" to Ambassador Zorin at the UN and rising magnificently to the occasion, and McNamara losing his grip in the Pentagon when a warship fires flares at a Russian freighter.
The final scenes of O'Donnell with his family thinking of what might have been are a rather feeble attempt to give 'meaning' or a human dimension to the crisis. Unfortunately history doesn't have meanings, it is just a series of events.
A better account of the story was given in the Martin Sheen mini-series "Kennedy", generating far greater tension. Martin Sheen also made a much more energetic and charismatic JFK. Bruce Greenwood is just bland and colourless.