Patriots Day - movie review
Patriots Day
Plot: The story of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the aftermath, which includes the city-wide manhunt to find the terrorists responsible.
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Monaghan, J.K. Simmons
Director: Peter Berg
Certificate: 15 (strong language, bloody injury detail, strong violence, threat)
Runtime: 2hrs 13 mins
Release Date: Thursday 23rd February 2017
Krystle Campbell. Martin Richard. Lu Lingzi. Officer Sean Collier. These names appear in the conclusion of Patriots Day but I thought it fitting to honour them in the opening to this review. For those of you who aren't sure, these four people were killed in the Boston Marathon bombings and ensuing attacks. Honour is a continual theme throughout Patriots Day and it serves as yet another entry into the unofficial trilogy for Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg's true life stories of heroism and bravery. Lone Survivor came first (which, personally, was their best effort), Deepwater Horizon (a telling of the Gulf of Mexico oil rig crisis) was released last year and now we have Patriots Day.
For a movie set in Boston, surrounding a Boston, and for that matter, countrywide, crisis and praising the heroism of the Boston people, it should come as no surprise that Mark Wahlberg would be cast as the lead. It would have either been him, Matt Damon or Ben Affleck but seeing as Damon is too busy fighting off lizards in China and Affleck is preoccupied with deciding whether he wants to direct The Batman or not, Wahlberg was the obvious choice. Interestingly, seeing as this film prides itself on retelling these harrowing and powerful events in a factual and realistic manner, Wahlberg's character of Tommy Saunders is entirely fictional. Tommy Saunders does not exist, or at least no one with that name was involved with finding the terrorists that attacked Boston, but to compensate for that, Saunders acts as a conduit for the audience to see how the hunt developed. Wahlberg obviously has a lot of passion within his performance and in one instance, delivers a moving statement about the people of Boston and what this city means to them. In that scene, it felt like his love came from the heart rather than a script. I do think that, to begin with, his character leaned towards a copy of his detective from The Departed where every other word he says is a swear word which ultimately detracted from the reality but aside from that small issue, Mark Wahlberg was otherwise flawless and his team ups with Peter Berg have yet to fail. Saunders is the only fictional character appearing in this film.
John Goodman portrays the Boston Police Commissioner, Ed Davis, and he too, gives a very impassioned performance. Goodman has a good rapport with his fellow cast, specifically Wahlberg and Kevin Bacon, and that relationship is key considering how much of this film is discussions between the Boston Police Department and the FBI into how the hunt for the two terrorists should operate. Whilst a Philadelphia man at heart, Bacon too, has a clear desire for this story to be told and makes for a very convincing FBI director whose overwhelming aim to catch the terrorists is affectingly portrayed by Bacon. At times, Bacon isn't given the credit he often deserves but in Patriots Day, it's a showcase of his talents. Even J.K. Simmons makes a brief appearance as the Watertown Police Chief who, as well as adding yet another spirited notch on his prestigious belt, gets his hands dirty in the films confrontational scenes between police and the two bombers. If this is even the smallest inclining as to how Simmons will be as Commissioner Gordon, we're in for something good come November. But perhaps, the most challenging roles featured in Patriots Day are supplied by Alex Wolff and Themo Melikidze. These two actors play the Tsarnaev brothers aka the Boston bombers. Immediately, it would not be easy for many actors to accept this role, especially due to how recent these attacks are and how fresh it is in everyone's mind. Wolff and Melikidze do an admirable job with their portrayals, so whilst I did have some problems with the overwhelming focus on them during the film, these actors made an unbelievably ballsy decision and it paid off.
FACT: The casting call for extras for the film resulted in a line stretching the entire quarter-mile length of Braintree Street in Allston.
Harrowing, heartfelt and heart wrenching, Patriots Day certainly doesn't pull any punches when it comes to the initial bombings during the marathon. The film begins in a usual Peter Berg fashion. The audience are almost suffocated with constant introductions to the films characters. Some are immediately important whilst others do not reappear until the latter portion. Berg's style of filmmaking is fresh but very simple. At this point, having seen how he crafts these true stories for the third time, I didn't feel like it an uncontrollable rush of character introductions. I was assured that those who weren't immediately featured would crop up again and be included more prominently. The flow of the film is another strength that Berg has throughout all of his films. Tense doesn't even begin to describe Patriots Day. Usually, in an action film or thriller, there is oodles of tension to be found. For a film like this, centred on true events, it is terrifyingly intense because you know how everything you're seeing really did happen. The actual bombings themselves are haunting due to Berg incorporating recreated action of the explosions with actual CCTV and camera footage spliced in. Those scenes had the intended impact of reminding us of the horror and chaos those attacks caused. It is genuinely, some of the most difficult things I've had to watch in the past year and that's praise. In fact, the chaos ranging from the explosions to the makeshift FBI base, is expertly directed by Berg as he balances the frantic need to find the attackers but also maintaining a clear head and keeping the pace steady so we can all follow.
Unfortunately, Berg's film isn't immaculate. As I said in the acting recap, the portrayal of the terrorists was very brave for this film to commit to. Sadly, in an attempt to detail this story from every perspective, a significant portion of Patriots Day focuses on the terrorists' lead up and their escape. I would have been fine with a couple of scenes to at least understand how these bombers operate but Berg decides to look into the psyche of the bombers. He delved into how they would argue, their home life and other such events in which it only involved those two people. This, I believe, is where Berg may have taken his artistic licence to fill in the gaps too far. With both bombers being unavailable for contact, I can only assume that many of the interactions between the bombers were fictionalised for the purposes of story structure. The family drama they suffer from also did not blend well with the cat and mouse tone when we cut back to Mark Wahlberg and others. I have to be careful what I say here but when the two brothers are moaning about who has to get milk from the shops, Terrorist EastEnders popped into my mind. Another slight complaint I have with Patriots Day is that by the time we get to the final act, Berg and his fellow writers get so caught up with providing the message about hope and uniting together, the film doesn't make as much sense narratively than it should have done as they forget they have a film to finish. Apart from that, Patriots Day is sensational. Even the action sequences (albeit slightly glamorised to suit a cinematic production) are shot fantastically proving the fact that Peter Berg is Michael Bay with class.
Whilst Patriots Day could have pushed the performances to the forefront in the hopes of awards contention, Berg and those around him want to honour the men and women involved in this tragedy instead. It ticks practically all the boxes that I wanted to be ticked. Emotional. Intense. Brilliantly acted. Poignant but above all else, it is the film that these heroes and those that devastatingly lost their lives, deserve.
My Verdict: 8.5/10
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