Parkland
Open Road Films | Release Date: October 4, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
17
Negative:
4
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberSep 16, 2013
Engrossing, quietly revelatory, and often profoundly moving as it retells a story we only thought we knew. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 3, 2013
The chief virtues of Parkland are journalistic in the best sense. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc MohanOct 3, 2013
It does assemble a compelling collage from the experiences of several real-life witnesses to the event and its aftermath. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedOct 1, 2013
A sobering, documentary-style film commemorating eyewitness accounts of what happened in the aftermath of the tragedy, some of them fresh as a new wound, all of them painful but vital to a deeper understanding of one of the darkest chapters in American history. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreSep 30, 2013
Parkland is a fascinating insider’s view of those fateful two days in November of 1963, when a president was murdered, his assassin was gunned down in custody and generations of conspiracies were born. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyOct 3, 2013
The writer-director digs deeply and with a marked sensitivity, capturing the desperate, heartbroken humanity of the time and the place. But it is also a movie of frustrating stumbles — blunders that diminish what might have been a brilliant film. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenOct 2, 2013
Parkland adds no significant knowledge to history or conspiracy theorists, but such details as the way Zapruder’s scrunched-up eye pops wide open when he witnesses what will be forever imprinted on his retina and amateur film are vivid. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 3, 2013
A film of modest ambition and workmanlike pacing, it breaks little new ground, either in form or content. Then again, that may be the point. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithOct 3, 2013
All of this is secondary, even tertiary material, even if much of it is interesting and even wrenching to behold. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigOct 3, 2013
The events of those days would have been better covered in greater depth in a miniseries, rather than a 90-minute movie. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesBruce IngramOct 3, 2013
It shouldn’t necessarily be the case that a film focusing on the collateral details of the shooting, after the fact, would feel dull and uninvolving, but this writing/directing debut by journalist Peter Landesman does, with the exception of a few particularly interesting revelations. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 3, 2013
Bulging with period details and a large and busy cast, Parkland is well made and at times queasily fascinating. At others, it gives in to melodrama and the ticking off of facts. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezOct 3, 2013
Parkland is wildly uneven, although compulsively watchable. Read full review
62
Film.comLaremy LegelSep 16, 2013
Parkland mines some interesting scenes, if not in an entirely coherent fashion, resolving as more of an interesting concept than a fully rendered and effective film. Read full review
60
EmpireStaff (Not credited)Nov 19, 2013
Dramatically it’s bitty, with, to paraphrase a great American newsman of the time, too much, too fast. But there is no denying how absorbing the tumultuous events of those four days remain. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 9, 2013
The acting is first rate, the story still heartbreakingly urgent. But ultimately Parkland plays more like a re-enactment than a film in its own right. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanOct 3, 2013
Perhaps it’s inevitable that the movie works best not while we’re watching fictional recreations, but when we see real footage or hear actual broadcasts. Read full review
60
The DissolveNathan RabinOct 2, 2013
Parkland finds a new angle on an exhaustively chronicled and debated subject by focussing on the grim practicalities of the situation. Read full review
60
The GuardianXan BrooksSep 16, 2013
If the film finally doesn't tell us anything we did not already know, the approach makes a worn-out old tragedy feel supple and urgent. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloOct 2, 2013
As vicarious, you-are-there re-creations of historical events go, it’s creditably workmanlike; whether that’s the best use of the dream factory is another matter. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsOct 5, 2013
The most grievous sins here are sins of omission. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireOct 4, 2013
Parkland expends lots of energy and expertise on re-creating these infamous events, yet it is so lacking in narrative purpose that many viewers are likely to leave muttering, "Okay…but so what?" Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen HoldenOct 3, 2013
Because the film, which affects the style of “United 93,” offers no new insights, theories or important information, you’re left wondering why it was made. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 3, 2013
Those looking for some human interest in their human interest may be equally frustrated. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChuck BowenSep 29, 2013
The Peter Landesman film's overt politics are minimal, aside from defaulting to the myth of John F. Kennedy as a martyr for...something. Read full review
45
NPRElla TaylorOct 4, 2013
Awkward, incoherent and plodding. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonNov 19, 2013
A potentially gripping study of the fallout from the JFK assassination as experienced by his doctors, secret service agents and the man who famously photographed the incident is rendered tame by a combination of flat writing and overly busy storytelling. Read full review
40
Total FilmKate StablesNov 3, 2013
Despite some affecting moments, the lumbering Parkland feels more like a well-researched magazine feature than an involving drama. As Billy Bob Thornton’s lawman says: “This was not supposed to happen.” Read full review
40
The New YorkerAnthony LaneOct 7, 2013
And so, as the solemnity of the enterprise is frittered away, you feel moved to ask: what is this film for? Read full review
40
Village VoicePete Vonder HaarOct 1, 2013
It's in the film's second half that Parkland goes all Tony Romo and fumbles. Instead of becoming truly engrossing, it threatens to descend into unreserved melodrama. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichOct 1, 2013
The tone never stops waffling, and nothing truly revelatory ever emerges about those terrible few days in Texas. What we’re left with is the Disney theme-park version of history — all waxworks and weepiness. Read full review
38
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 3, 2013
Sadly, what Parkland becomes is a crying shame. Read full review
30
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 16, 2013
Granted, Landesman feels an obligation to history, but there’s something ponderously obvious about the way so many of these scenes are played. Read full review
20
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 16, 2013
Oswald’s brother Robert, played by James Badge Dale, is the film’s only rational human being, and Dale makes you wish Landesman had written the entire film from his angle. Read full review
16
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonSep 16, 2013
There's a pleasing egalitarianism to the film's history-through-the-eyes-of-the-ordinary-man concept, but the script rarely makes the case that their versions are compelling enough to warrant a film. Read full review
More From This Movie

51 Critic Reviews

6.4 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL