There are important movies and engrossing movies, but it's not often that both terms apply to the same movie. "Bobby" is a fictionalized account of the day Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, and it's one of the exceptions.

The film was written and directed by Emilio Estevez, who does a masterful job of merging the stories of 22 characters who end up at Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel on the night of the shooting. While the people never existed, the emotions are spot-on and heartfelt.

Estevez is overseeing his first feature film. He does so with a sure hand, deftly interweaving the characters and their story lines into a narrative quilt.

One of the oldest saws in show business is that a good script attracts talent, and this movie proves the point. The deep and talented ensemble cast includes both veteran actors (Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Fishburne, Helen Hunt and William H. Macy) and younger stars (Lindsay Lohan, Nick Cannon, Shia LaBeouf and Ashton Kutcher). Estevez tossed in a little novelty casting — Harry Belafonte is back on a movie screen for the first time in 10 years — and, for good measure, he gave a role to his dad, Martin Sheen.

The movie begins in the hotel kitchen, where the racist manager (Christian Slater) has ordered the Latino workers to pick up a double shift. This rankles one of the busboys (Freddy Rodriguez), who has tickets to that night's Dodgers game and plans to attend with his father, who has never seen a big-league game. A chef (Fishburne) tries to smooth things over by counseling Rodriguez, but he doesn't have the administrative clout to help him.

Things are mellower up in the lobby, where a pair of retired hotel workers (Hopkins and Belafonte) are playing chess; after spending their entire adult lives at the hotel, they don't know where else to go. The manager (Macy), himself a lifer whose wife (Sharon Stone) also works at the hotel, understands and makes sure they feel welcome.

Upstairs in one of the suites, a washed-up, liquored-up lounge singer (Demi Moore) is getting ready to perform at Kennedy's post-election rally, but only if her husband (Estevez) can sober her up, a daily challenge for which he has lost all enthusiasm.

Intercut with these stories is archival footage of Kennedy's last day of campaigning. Estevez incorporates it naturally, because most of the people at the hotel are following the events on TV

As with most ensemble projects, the more complex stories tend to get more attention. But no one gets overlooked or forgotten, and that adds to the impact of the tragic event that we know awaits them all.

<b>TITLE: </b>“Bobby”<b>CAST: </b>Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Fishburne, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy, Sharon Stone, Demi Moore<b>DIRECTOR: </b>Emilio Estevez<b>RATED: </b>R for an assassination scene, profanity and drug content<b>GRADE:</b> 3½ Stars (out of 5)