Rating :   55/100                                                                       93 Min       

Released in the UK on the exact 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, this film appears to simply highlight that memorial – there really is no other point to the film whatsoever as we watch a dramatisation of the events surrounding that fateful day from the point of view of his staff, the medical professionals at Parkland hospital where Kennedy was taken, and the brother and mother of Lee Harvey Oswald who shot him (officially, at any rate). There’s lots of weeping, shouting, fake tension for events we already know the outcome of – all in all it’s an uninvolving soporific affair that barely adds anything at all to the plethora of other takes on the event. Indeed, simply rereleasing Oliver Stone’s ‘JFK’ (91), which is a real film, would have been a much better idea, if a somewhat controversial one. An impressive cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Marcia Gay Harden, Paul Giamatti, Zac Efron, Jacki Weaver, but each of them are given very little screen time, and just as little dialogue to work with.