Indie Gems: Parked

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Even the worst sound mixing* in the world can't bring down this little gem.
 
Fred (Colm Meaney) has just moved back to Ireland from a long time in England. He can't find a place to live, and is forced to stay in his car in a small car park. Eventually, a 21 year old druggie named Cathal (Colin Morgan of Merlin fame.) parks next to him, and changes Fred's life in ways he never thought possible. 
 
The funny thing about Parked is that I assumed it was a comedy, only because it was my husband that threw it in our Netflix queue. I saw that it had Michael McElhatton (Roose Bolton!) in it, so I figured it would be good, I wasn't expecting it to be so quaint and devastating. A movie like this has potential to be a total buzz kill, but there's something about Meaney and Morgan's performances that just keep this film going. They're both lost souls just trying to find their way back into society. I thought their relationship was very beautiful, though very complicated.


I loved the piano music and the score in general through out, but there was one giant fault with this film, and it was the sound mixing.* Granted, it might not be the sound mixer's fault, it very well could've been the quality of the DVD, which came from Netflix so we know it's bottom of the barrel shit anyways, but at times the music was so loud, you couldn't hear the dialogue. You could tell it wasn't meant to be that way either, these guys had some important things to day. The DVD had no subtitles, so I found myself having to rewind the film quite often to listen closer at what they were saying, since I couldn't hear it. Then there were times the sound just went out completely. (Right during the first confrontation between Morgan and McElhatton's characters) I'm assuming anyone in Europe reading this won't have the same issue, since I you would have access to the correct DVD for your region.
 
Despite my DVD woes, I found this to be a very good little drama. I hope I can one day watch it again, with a better DVD.
 
Grade: B
 
Memorable Quote: "It's a beautiful thing." - Cathal (Colin Morgan)


 


Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 20, 2013 at 2:25 PM

    Beautiful review and thanks for sharing - I feel obligated to check it out now, living in Europe and everything ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamSeptember 21, 2013 at 9:35 AM

      Thanks! I hope your DVD quality was better. I still haven't gotten over that. lol

      Delete

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