JFK Assassination Drama "Parkland" Premieres at Venice Festival

Last night "Parkland" screened at the 70th Venice International Film Festival, which began on August 28 and will close on September 7. The film, also starring Tom Welling, Paul Giamatti, Jackie Earle Haley (who apparently gives the strongest performance), James Badge Dale and Jacki Weaver, reexamines the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 through the eyes of the "little people" who experienced it. Efron plays a young doctor who commandeers the effort at Parkland hospital (thus, the title) to save the President.

The docu-style drama, which has earned reviews that range from disappointed to link, is being released in tandem with the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas.

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"Parkland" is competing against twenty other films for the Golden Lion prize. Also in the running are the Japanese animated film "Kaze Tachinu" (The Wind Rises) from the master himself Hayao Miyazaki (sad news, fans: he's retiring), and "Miss Violence" about a Greek family dealing (or not dealing) with the suicide of one of its younger members.