Unlike the highly controversial Executive Action and later Oliver Stone's JFK, Parkland takes no position as to the wider implications of a conspiracy involving the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Instead we get a rather sober docudrama about the four days that if you lived through them you remember every detail that was reported until President Kennedy was lowered into his grave at Arlington.

None of the famous people of the event are shown here at any length. Some are shown briefly, some actors play John and Jacqueline Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. The Oswalds are given more exposure. But the film concentrates on the peripheral characters of the drama, secret service agents, doctors at Parkland Hospital, presidential aides. A bit of the drama of the instant transition of power is involved as the office in a flash of gunfire transfers from one man to another.

Some familiar faces are here. Billy Bob Thornton is the Secret Service agent in charge of the Dallas area, Zac Efron is the young trauma surgeon who makes a vain effort at saving a dead man, Paul Giammati is Abraham Zapruder who took the most famous home movies in the history of the planet.

My favorite is Jacki Weaver the Australian actress who plays Marguerite Oswald. Her son's instant notoriety has elevated as she thinks to some kind of celebrity status. Today that woman would find herself a server and get some kind of blog. Weaver plays her one suit shy of a full deck.

As it does not deal with large issues, just small screw ups Parkland does not have the epic sweep that JFK does. Still it's an interesting and different look at the four most traumatic days of the last century.

After recently watching Bill O'Reilly's 'Killing Kennedy', I prefer this movie over that one. Here's why. The JFK story has no more new insights for me. The Oswalt story could be interesting, but the O'Reilly movie is rather flat.

This movie looks at the events through the eyes of all the other characters. It has things that I never heard of before. Without spoiling too much, Oswalt's mother is a pill. And I never knew of that happening in the FBI office. And I can't believe the fighting in that operating room. That's insane.

This is not a regular flowing movie. With these varied stories, it was never going to have the regular structure. It is scatter shoot storytelling. Interestingly, I found most of the stories fascinating and compelling. I wanted to know each character and their stories. And the acting was all top rate. It is the JFK assassination movie to watch.

Oliver Stone's JFK is a benchmark in the Kennedy assassination conspiracy thriller. Even if you have reservations with Stone's polemic, you can still be swept up with the force of his arguments.

With an all star cast. Parkland is a small scale tapestry dealing with the people on that fateful day.

Abraham Zapruder (Paul Giamatti) who wanted to take a movie of President Kennedy visiting Dallas and recorded his assassination.

In Parkland Hospital, doctors and nurses in the emergency room such as young Dr Jim Carrico (Zac Efron) and Nurse Doris Nelson (Marcia Gay Harden) treat the president as he arrives at the hospital.

Father Oscar Huber (Jackie Earle Haley) solemnly delivers the last rites once he has been pronounced dead. Jacqueline Kennedy with bits of her husband brain and skull in her hand.

The secret service bring Kennedy's body back to Washington and need to adjust the plane so the hearse fits.

It dawns on Robert Oswald (James Badge Dale) that his brother shot the president. A few days later he has to bury his brother also shot dead. Their unhinged mother Marguerite (Jacki Weaver) screams intrigue.

Parkland is enthralling in its own way, looking at the human dimension of the events. It has nothing new to offer and does not dip its toes in any conspiracies. That is also its undoing as it lacks drama.