Kevin Costner returns to form!

Rating: 10/10 (27 July 2002)

As far as historical pieces go, this is up there with JFK.
Costner is superb as Kenny O'Donnell, the know all Special Assistant to JFK, despite his Forrest Gump-alike Bostonian accent. Two relative unknowns though are the show stealers; Steven Culp is eerily good as Bobby K, whereas Bruce Greenwood is excellent as the Pres. The real winner in the movie though is the David Self's script. The lack of real action had to be compensated by something, and the lingual sparring between the main threesome and the military and hordes of advisors and secretaries, and Special Assistants and so on, certainly does that. For someone who wasn't alive during the Cuban Missile Crisis, this is as informative as it is entertaining, despite the fact that some of it will no doubt have been untrue. The only real flaw is the jingoistic sensationalism of the Kennedies and the bad light that the post-Bay Of Pigs Military is shown in, but I can look beyond that when the script is throwing up lines like "I am the President of the United States. And I say when we go to War!". Excellent film thats even better second time round. As a scriptwriter myself, this movie has influenced me to changing some of my 'action heavy' writing, for the more witty intense dialogue. 9/10