Starring Anthony Hopkins in a pivotal role, the film recreates the aura of the Kennedy era by weaving real broadcast and newsfilm footage of the senator with dramatic episodes featuring a broad ensemble of mostly fictional characters. The storytelling approach mirrors a classic ensemble device—think Grand Hotel and, at times, Robert Altman’s Nashville—where interlocking lives unfold within a single setting and a shared historical moment.
Within the hotel’s bustling atmosphere, we meet John Casey, a retired hotel doorman who shuffles chess pieces with his friend Nelson in the lobby, and Diane, who plans to marry her friend William with the hope that his new marriage will secure a deployment to a military base in Germany rather than Vietnam. Virginia Fallon, an alcoholic singer on the downswing, navigates the complexities of her put-upon husband/manager Tim and her agent Phil. Miriam Ebbers works as a beautician in the hotel salon, while her husband Paul, the hotel manager, carries on an affair with switchboard operator Angela. The story also follows Daryl Timmons, the food and beverage manager whose racist attitude leads to his dismissal, and the hotel’s kitchen crew—Edward Robinson, a Black sous chef, along with Mexican American busboys José and Miguel. A coffee shop waitress named Susan, along with Kennedy campaign volunteers Jimmy and Cooper, who are briefly sidetracked by an acid trip with a drug dealer named Fisher, add to the mosaic. The socialite donors Samantha and Jack, campaign staff Wade and Dwayne (who harbors feelings for Angela’s colleague Patricia), and Lenka Janáčková, a determined Czechoslovak reporter, round out the cast of intersecting lives all orbiting the same pivotal moment.
As the campaign rises to its dramatic climax, the hotel’s diverse cast of characters threads together with the national mood surrounding Kennedy’s pursuit of a peaceful, hopeful vision. The film builds toward a shattering moment when Kennedy is shot just after delivering his acceptance speech. The event is catalyzed by Sirhan Sirhan, who would be convicted for the murder. In the immediate aftermath, Jose the hotel staff member cradles Kennedy as help arrives, and the film overlays Kennedy’s speech “On the Mindless Menace of Violence” with the unfolding shock and sorrow. The attack also injures Samantha, Daryl, Cooper, Jimmy, and William, illustrating how a single act of violence ripples through a community. Sirhan is apprehended, Kennedy is carried to an ambulance, and others are treated for their injuries as the world processes the tragedy. The closing titles reveal that Kennedy dies from his injuries the following morning, with his wife Ethel at his side, while the other victims persevere. In the end, the film leaves viewers with a somber meditation on the era’s hopeful dreams and the violence that shattered them, underscoring how a hotel—a microcosm of society—became a stage for history in motion.
