Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on June 2014

Docudrama based on the book Four Days in November focuses on the responses of the doctors, nurses, federal agents and witnesses to the 1963 Kennedy assassination. The title is the name of the Dallas Hospital to which the president, and later his murderer, were rushed. The film is workmanlike and captures the heartbreak of the story, which remains absorbing even today. It’s interesting if at times gut-wrenching. But it lacks much narrative purpose, the writing’s flat, and it offers no new insights or theories, conspiracy or otherwise. Indeed this film’s main mystery is why it was made at all. Japanese title: Parkland: Kennedy Ansatsu Shinjitsu no Yokkakan. (93 min)