SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2013

painful retelling of the Nov 22, 1963, as the priest who delivers Kennedy’s last assassination of President Kennedy rites. Ain which the two least important The only characters that rise above waxy players seem to be JFK and Lee Harvey re-creation in the whole affair are the Oswald, “Parkland” dramatizes the immedi- Oswalds: Dale and Jacki Weaver, who plays ate impact of that tragedy on the lives of Lee’s venom-spewing mother, Marguerite - civilians, professionals and others tangen- a real piece of work. Behind horn-rimmed tially involved. Comparisons with “Bobby” glasses and a biting Southern accent, can’t be helped, since it took a similar Weaver delivers a camp performance totally approach to the equally shocking death of out of synch with the rest of the ensemble. Robert F Kennedy, though that film seems Named after the Dallas hospital where like a masterpiece compared with this Kennedy was treated, “Parkland” spans four inadvertently tacky restaging of events. days in a very tight bubble. Apart from Timed to coincide with the 50th anniver- Walter Cronkite’s famous sign-off following sary of the tragedy, this film will swiftly be JFK’s funeral, there’s little sense of how any- Review forgotten in the face of more tasteful one outside this microcosm of characters mementos. reacted to events, the exception being Jack If you’ve ever wanted to know the Ruby, whose shooting of Oswald also con- expression on Abraham Zapruder’s face forms to the movie’s curious style of render- when his Super 8 camera captured history’s ing key events as obliquely as possible. most famous snuff film, or to see the It’s as if Landesman wants to break from footage reflected in his eyeglasses right the now-cliched footage Americans already after it has been developed, “Parkland” is associate with this tragedy, attempting to your movie. Writer-director Peter This film image released by Exclusive Media Entertainment shows, introducefrom fresh images in their place. But Landesman offers a reverse-shot on history, left, Paul Giamatti as Abraham Zapruder, Paul Sparks as Harry no one really needs the sight of a blood- depicting the little people pulled into the McCormick, and Billy Bob Thornton as Forrest Sorrels, the head ofspattered the Jackie cupping a handful of JFK’s maelstrom of confusion that surrounded Secret Service in Dallas, in a scene from Parkland. -AP skull and brain matter, while the irony feels Kennedy’s killing. But mostly, it feels like forced when asking the same Parkland staff witnessing someone play a cruel jack-in- been considerably easier to stomach in doc- offers Secret Service agent Forrest Sorrels who had lost Kennedy to treat Oswald or the-box trick on dozens of innocent umentary form. Instead, we get a bizarre (Billy Bob Thornton), the sort of banal dia- cross-cutting between their funerals. The bystanders, watching the belief in humanity mix of Oscar winners and softball actors, as logue that begs the question of whether pic badly miscalculates such mock-poetic fade from one face after another, as when jittery hand-held cameras find Marcia Gay anyone could muster a less dramatic heavy-handedness as the classy approach, Jackie (Kat Steffens) learns that her husband Harden working alongside “High School retelling of events. Granted, Landesman making it worse by slathering it all in a is dead, or Oswald’s brother Robert (James Musical” heartthrob Zac Efron in the ER feels an obligation to history, but there’s score that alternates between patriotic Badge Dale) hears the news on the radio. where doctors tried to save the president’s something ponderously obvious about the horns and cheesy suspense music. Based on the first 700 or so pages of life. (Fun fact: For the sake of dignity, super- way so many of these scenes are played: “Parkland,” an Exclusive release, is rated Vincent Bugliosi’s “Reclaiming History: The vising physician Charles James Carrico evi- Paul Giamatti is sweaty and panting breath- PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of Assassination of President John F. dently ordered that they leave Kennedy’s lessly as Zapruder; Ron Livingston looks America for “bloody sequences of ER trau- Kennedy,” a solid piece of reportage by the boxer shorts on while trying to resuscitate shell-shocked and blank as FBI agent James ma procedures, some violent images and author (and prosecuting attorney) behind him.) P. Hosty, who failed to investigate Oswald; language, and smoking throughout.” “Helter Skelter,” “Parkland” would have “This was not supposed to happen,” Jackie Earle Haley has nothing to work with Running time: 94 minutes. — AP Julianne Moore gets star on Hollywood ‘Walk of Fame’ merican actress Julianne Moore side to work with Julianne Moore is that forming. She’s feeling what the character received the 2,507th star on you become addicted to working with is feeling. It’s a very difficult thing to do,” AHollywood Boulevard’s “Walk of Julianne Moore,” Roach said. Actor-direc- Gordon-Levitt said. Nominated four times Fame” Thursday, during a ceremony sur- tor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who shares the for an Oscar, Moore has nearly 60 films rounded by colleagues from her career in screen with Moore in “Don Jon,” which he under her belt including “Boogie Nights,” film. Wearing a yellow dress and white directed and is currently in theaters, hon- “The Big Lebowski,” “Magnolia,” heels, Moore unveiled her star, located ored his colleague as well. “Hannibal,” “Son of Man” and “Crazy, opposite Hollywood’s historic Pantages “She’s not faking it when she’s per- Stupid, Love.” — AFP Theatre, one week before the release of her latest film “Carrie,” a remake of the classic 1976 horror flick. “Growing up it never even occurred to me that it was Jane Fonda arrives for the screening of the film Promised possible to be an actor for a living,” Land at the 63rd edition of the Berlinale, International Film Moore, 52, said. Festival in Berlin, Germany. — AP “But I did it because my favorite thing to do was read and it was a way for me to Jane Fonda to receive imagine that I was in the book and I loved it,” Moore said. Multiple colleagues from Moore’s career in film were present to film achievement award honor her, including Jay Roach, director of the HBO television movie “Game ane Fonda will receive the American Film Institute’s 42nd Change.” Moore’s performance as US Life Achievement Award, one of Hollywood’s most presti- vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin in Jgious career honors. “Jane Fonda is American film royalty,” the 2012 film won her an Emmy Award AFI chairman Howard Stringer said in a statement released for best TV movie actress. Thursday. “A bright light first introduced to the world as the Working alongside Moore, Roach said daughter of Henry Fonda, the world watched as she found her “everybody has to step it up. Everyone own voice and forged her own path.” has to work much harder And she’s not At 75, Fonda’s career hasn’t slowed, including roles in “Lee pushing people or trying to control Daniels’ The Butler” and HBO’s “The Newsroom.” The AFI award everything. She’s just collaborative and Actress Julianne Moore poses on her just unveiled star in will be presented at a star-studded gala on June 5, 2014, to be patient and generous.” “The only down- Hollywood, California. AFP televised later that month on TNT. — AP