Parkland documents the events that immediately follow the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It follows the president to the hospital, where unprepared surgeons are suddenly faced with the prospect of fighting for the president’s life. It offers glimpses of Abraham Zapruder (played here by Paul Giamatti), a camera hobbyist who captures the horrific event on film. It checks in on the FBI and Secret Service agents trying to figure this all out. And it takes a look at how the family of Lee Harvey Oswald deals with the consequences of his actions.
Any one of these bits of history might have made for an interesting movie. But Parkland tries to tackle it all, and in a relatively short amount of time as well. It only aims to depict, and doesn’t seem inclined to linger in any of these moments to try and understand what any of it means. It results in a film made up of parts more compelling than the overall picture.
The most interesting parts of the film deal with the very practical details of the fallout. One strong sequence depicts a panicked Secret Service rushing to unbolt chairs on Air Force One to make room for the president’s coffin in the cabin. Another scene has Zapruder and the local FBI trying to find a place that could develop 8mm film. These sequences have a cumulative effect, really driving home the idea that the unthinkable has happened. Prior to the assassination, no one really thought that anything like this could happen. There is no protocol, no standard operating procedure. The film finds tension in these small lives faced with something that is just larger than life.
But the film doesn’t stay in that space. It stumbles as it tries to mine conventional character drama out of these slices of history. There isn’t really enough time for the drama to bloom, and so the film rushes through the histrionics of the Oswald family dynamics. As Marguerite Oswald, Jacki Weaver plays up the megalomania and histrionics while pretty much forgetting the humanity. James Badge Dale wrings emotion from his portrayal of the assassin’s brother Robert, but does so in scenes that feel compressed and manufactured. The subplot of FBI Agent James Hosty doesn’t get the focus it needed, either, underserving the darkness of its final moments.
The film just doesn’t come together as a whole. It has all these disparate parts, with clashing tones and purposes. It is a tension evident in the casting of the picture. The naturalistic docudrama ambition of the film calls for more unfamiliar faces. But the film is star-studded, every segment seemingly anchored by an award-winning actor. What semblance of reality the movie might build is immediately undermined by the presence of someone like Zac Efron. Billy Bob Thornton and Paul Giamatti may be amazing actors, but they end up being more of a distraction than anything else. The film needs smaller performances to work. Jeremy Strong as Lee Harvey Oswald stands out, because his name isn’t overriding the character.
Parkland is an intriguing exercise that doesn’t add up to much. There is some merit in the sober retelling of these events, but the film isn’t committed enough to doing just that. And it isn’t quite brave enough to deliver new insight into these events. There are a few really strong moments in this, but it just doesn’t come together in the end. The film finds itself stuck in between two opposing ambitions, fighting for verisimilitude while embracing convention. It’s an uncomfortable fit.
My Rating:
