At first glance Parked looks like a good drama about midlife crises and drug abuse. Colm Meaney is, after all, always a dependable actor. He plays Fred, whose life has taken a turn for the worse. He is homeless and lives in his car in a parking lot somewhere along the Irish coast. You couldn’t tell it from the way he looks, because he makes sure he always looks his best. When Cathal (Colin Morgan) parks his little yellow car near Fred’s car Fred finds a new reason to live. The friendship between the two homeless men invigorates them, but then Cathal’s earlier life comes crashing into Fred’s world with devastating results.
There’s a lot to like about Parked. The two main actors, Meaney and Morgan, are excellent. They really sell the desperation and the friendship. However unusual it may seem at first. Parked starts to become very predictable once Cathal’s past shows up. You know deep inside that there is no escape possible for Cathal and it is to Parked’s detriment that director Darragh Byrne didn’t play a little more with our expectation. There is nothing that will surprise you while watching this movie.
Parked is shot in the most somber manner possible. With grey clouds in the sky and the constant threat of rain and other miserable circumstances on the horizon (often literally) there is not much to marvel at except the performances from the cast. If there is one thing that we learn from watching Parked then it is that being homeless and doing drugs don’t go together well in Ireland. You’re better off watching this at home on demand or something like that.
My Movie Year 2012 
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