During their lunch break, twelve offbeat characters converge on a secluded public park in the hills above Los Angeles. April arrives first with the intention of killing herself, but every time she tries, she fails, which only frustrates her more. Meanwhile, in a nearby pet grooming mobile, Ian is infatuated with his fellow groomer Krysta but is crushed to realize she is planning a kinky rendezvous with a smug attorney named Dennis. Next, Dennis's wife Peggy and her best friend Claire arrive to
punish and humiliate Dennis, while in a nearby van, Nathan and Babar decide to prove to their female co-workers, Meredith and Sheryl, that they enjoy eating their lunches naked. Sex, love, suicide, betrayal, nudism, sushi and dog grooming--and you thought it was just a quiet little park.
None of the characters seems particularly believable, except Lake's; she brings some feeling to a thin role. And the campy, "outrageous" comedy is pretty thin, too.
It's all harmlessly naughty at the outset, but when it comes to juggling all those characters and their intersecting scenarios, Voelker lacks the dexterity of, say, Robert Altman.
A flotilla of L.A. residents gathers in an unlandscaped recreation area in Baldwin Hills to canoodle, attempt suicide, plot revenge and dig into one another's psyches in writer-director Kurt Voelker's high-spirited if slight comedy, Park.
The suicidal couple was interesting, but all the other characters were pretty stupid and I could have cared less if they all spontaneously combusted. Actually that would have been awesome.
May 22, 2008
Curtis Lilly
Super Reviewer
A little bit of fluff. A cliched look at relationships and self discovery played out during a long lunch hour at a secluded park overlooking Los Angeles. A lawyer and his paramour are discovered by his wife and her friend. A dog groomer discovers the raving beauty he works beside is not for him, but the troubled young
woman who tries unsucessfully to commit suicide, just might be. And four twenty-somethings bare their souls and a little bit more to each other and deeply held secrets are revealed. Not exactly Oscar worthy, but mildly entertaining. A bit too predictable, a little hard to swallow, and maybe a little too tame. Still, I watched the whole thing, so there must have been something there. I just can't remember what.
No quotes approved yet for Park. Logged in users can submit quotes.
Submit a Quote from 'Park'
A quote can be a single line from one character or a memorable dialog between several characters. Please make your quotes accurate. Quotes will be submitted for approval by the RT staff.
Example:
Luke: Alright. I'll give it a try. Yoda: No. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.
Top Critic
