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Thirteen Days is a film about the inner workings of the Kennedy administration during the Cuban Missile Crisis. While nuclear weapons have faded from the radar screen for most of us, it was only a generation ago that Americans woke up one October day wondering if it'd be their last. The movie portrays the difficult negotiations and decisions that confronted President Kennedy and his advisers during those precipitous two weeks in the fall of 1962.

The film begins the same way the crisis did--with the president and his senior advisers (including Kenny O'Donnell, played by Kevin Costner) learning of the secret placement of nuclear weapons in Cuba. While the Americans scramble to find out more about the missiles, they also plan their strategy, knowing they only have a limited time before the missiles are operational. The two-pronged strategy includes negotiating with the Soviets while also preparing for a preemptive attack. As certain factions within the administration favor one course over the other, Kennedy and O'Donnell do their best to negotiate with both the Soviet Union and
officials in their own government.

While the film necessarily invents certain pieces of dialogue, it is based on the numerous memoirs, oral histories, and documents that have been released in the years since. Because of this, it has a feeling of immediacy and realism that contributes enormously to the movie's success. The audience feels like it's watching history unfold, with all of the tension and gravity the situation provoked.

Tremendous credit must also go to the movie's editor, Conrad Buff (Titanic), who moves the film along at a crackling pace. He distills two weeks worth of events into two hours of film, such that the tension never falters, at least not before the movie's unfortunate denouement.

The real linchpin of the movie, though, is Bruce Greenwood (Sweet Hereafter). His performance as JFK is critical to the movie's success, and he pulls it off with gusto. Great but not perfect, heroic but not saintly, his portrayal achieves a perfect balance. Despite the film makers' attempt to beatify Kennedy, Greenwood keeps his feet firmly on the ground with a sharp and understated representation.

Greenwood also makes a wise decision to forego Kennedy's inimitable New England accent. Not so with Kevin Costner (For Love of the Game), whose wildly varying tone is some weird combination of Boston Brahmin and Texas Panhandle. Despite that misfortune, Costner is actually pretty good in Thirteen Days. He rarely overshadows his co-stars, and if you can get past his annoying voice, his acting chops are solid. Only in the movie's final scenes does his Oscar mongering become unbearable.

The movie's secondary characters--particularly Steven Culp (Nurse Betty) as Robert Kennedy and Dylan Baker (Happiness) as Robert McNamara--are outstanding, as the ensemble cast captures the workings of a political administration that is both working together and deeply divided. 

Roger Donaldson's direction isn't as strong. He clearly has some sort of fetish for military equipment, as we get numerous camera shots and angles of the missiles as well as fighter jets and naval ships, not to mention the opening credits which feature a whole series of atomic explosions in beautiful slo-mo. Donaldson also mistakes the use of various color stocks (black-and-white, slate blue filter, normal color film) for some sort of artistic expression. While Steven Soderbergh knows how to utilize various cinematic techniques, Donaldson seems to think that merely using them is a sign of competence.

Nonetheless, Thirteen Days is stirring entertainment with a history lesson to boot. 

 four, out of five

by J. Robert Parks