The Delicate Art of Parking

I had the pleasure of watching Trenton Carlson's, The Delicate Art of Parking, at the Vancouver Film Festival. After it won best Canadian Feature at the Montreal Fest, I knew it was gonna be good, but I couldn't stop laughing. I can't look at a Parking Enforcer the same way again. The film was also quite touching though. The director, screenwriter and actors, take us on the emotional journey of these crazy Parking Enforcers. This gives the film another layer to appreciate it on. If you're looking for a smart and intriguing movie to let out some belly laughs to, then keep an eye out for, The Delicate Art of Parking. Until then be sure to plug your meter and don't double park.

'The Delicate Art Of Parking' is a funny movie. I know that much. Now, whether it will appeal to everyone is hard to guess. Filled with many Vancouver actors and Vancouver sets, it's first and foremost, in my opinion, a Vancouver movie. The other problem being. Since I used to do a fair bit of acting in my day, I know a lot of the actors that appear in this. So does that increase my enjoyment of it? Probably not, while I enjoyed the people that I know, I also enjoyed the performances of the people I didn't know. Primarily the main character film-maker, played by Dov Tiefenbach and his subject played by Fred Ewaniuck. The film is a hilarious mockumentary about umm, parking meter attendants and the dangers of working on the job. I have no idea if that is true or not, but I'm sort of surprised no unions have protested the way they are presented in this film. Anyways, the filmmaker of this mockumentary follows this poor schlep around while he's working on his job, and is soon sucked into this mystery of how his superior was 'injured' on the job.

The story is somewhat minor here actually, and the director mainly focuses on the characters mostly: How the director wants to get this documentary made so that he can repay his own parking tickets, the parking attendant's devotions to his friends, the divisional boss's secret desire for an acting career (and the director's ability to exploit it, making a 'video' for him as a ruse to get more information.

All of these characters blend in very nicely in this world, which makes the clunky plot churn along.. The 'mystery' is somewhat aloof here, and there are some awkwardly paced moments, but all in all, a fairly enjoyable movie.

So it's not the best film ever made, but it is so far away from the worst in my box that I feel compelled to write.

Look at what the independent critics say...today as I write Rotten Toms has it at 78%. That's a good mark. "A funny, poignant piece of meta-movie-making that is a worthy addition to the mockumentary genre" says Cinemania. MovieViews writes "The Delicate Art of Parking is held together because of its strong characters. They're funny, they're quirky and, most of all, they're realistic." That's just two. There's a lot more. So don't assume the worst. Rent it and have a few laughs at situations we've most of us experienced if we drive and park.

Mockumentary as a viable comedic genre was first hinted at by Woody Allen in ZELIG in 1983, more concretely defined the following year by Rob Reiner in THIS IS SPINAL TAP and then made into an art form by SPINAL TAP star Christopher Guest in his recent films, most notably WAITING FOR GUFFMAN (1997). THE DELICATE ART OF PARKING is Reel 13's Canadian effort along those same lines and while it doesn't measure to the standards of those other films, it does boast a moderate amount of cleverness and manages to be mildly entertaining for 90 minutes.

At the midpoint of the film, they introduce a "plot" to the film within the film in which a meter maid guru is viciously attacked by an irate ticketed citizen. This is a little distracting and probably unnecessary, but it goes on to dominate the rest of the film. They were doing fine by just doing portraits of these inane characters and the apparent futility of their occupations. Also, it feels a little contrived that such a dramatic thing would conveniently happen in the middle of a documentary about these characters. It seems to belie the mockumentary structure that was chosen. If you wanted to incorporate a complicated plot, just do a plain old-fashioned comedy and spare us the gimmicks.

With that said, the actors in the film are all very talented and do a great job fleshing out their respective characters. Of particular note is Nancy Robertson as the acid-tongued Harriet Sharpe and Fred Ewanuick as the die-hard parking attendant Grant, who revolves his whole life around his seemingly meaningless job. The level of detail these actors present about their characters is reminiscent of the work done by some of the Christopher Guest ensemble, like Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy. Their characters have an element of silliness to them, but they feel so real and full that they work perfectly within the parameters of the mockumentary genre.

You're probably sensing my ambivalence about the film, which is pretty much true. I often find it difficult to fall in love with comedies in general because most of them are throwing jokes at you non-stop, but most are only truly funny for a part of the time. So, like the other film this week – ONE, TWO, THREE - even if a film makes you laugh a few times, that means it is probably failing to make you laugh the rest of the time, which lessens the overall impact of the film. THE DELICATE ART OF PARKING is a perfect example. While it is never riotous, it has a great deal of charm and good intentions. The very idea of a mockumentary about meter maids is funny by itself, even if it has very few moments of hilarity.

(For more on this or any other Reel 13 film, check out their website at www.reel13.org)

This movie was absolutely atrocious and I'm sad to admit that it was filmed in my home city of Vancouver.

The screenplay was juvenile, predictable and the jokes were, I suppose, hidden somewhere in the profanity laden rants of people taking their frustrations out on pathetic parking cops. The reality is that it's just too far-fetched an idea to think there could be so much drama in the lives of parking attendants and so the authors of the screenplay really stretched to try and build a house out of sand. What they ended up with was a dry, boring script which was acted by a bunch of third string hacks. I kept thinking that something would happen and it would get better but alas it never came and I left feeling upset that I'd just lost 2 hours of my life.

Please don't rent or go see this film anywhere at any time. It'll just encourage the people responsible for this piece of trash to make more crappy films.