Too soon? Money grabber? These are two fair questions about the timing of Peter Berg’s (Deepwater Horizon, Lone Survivor) 2016 Patriots Day. The movie is based on the April 15, 2013, Boston City Marathon bombing, killing three people and wounding hundreds of others. It might seem too soon for a movie studio to be capitalizing on the tragic events of that day. For many, the event is still fresh in their minds. When I saw the trailer for this movie for the first time, I tended to agree. But after seeing this movie, I have changed my mind and instead will go with the mindset that if you’re going to make a movie out of a tragic event such as the Boston City Marathon bombing, you better get it right. And I’ll be the first to say that Berg and all those associated with this movie did get this right. It was a respectful movie that looked at the incident from various angles.
While I have not researched fact versus fiction yet, I will give Patriots Day the benefit of the doubt and say it checked its facts before production. I know that the lead character, Seargent Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg – The Fighter, Daddy’s Home), is not an actual character but a composite of various officers in the Boston Police Department. I’m lukewarm on whether I like this or not. I like this idea. As you watch this film, you’ll quickly learn that Tommy has to be fictional because there is no way one person can be in every critical situation in the movie. It makes Tommy out to be a singular hero. I understand the Hollywood aspect, but I also appreciate paying homage to a true story. I would have preferred each character of the Boston Police Department to be more accurately portrayed. Still, with an abundance of characters, I could see how that could take away from the compelling storytelling of the film.
The film takes place over about five days. It begins with the morning of the marathon and ends with the apprehension of the final of the second of the two bombers. However, to establish a couple of characters, we start the night before the day of the marathon, where we meet Tommy and Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman – Flight, 10 Cloverfield Lane). Tommy is a well-respected officer who recently found himself in hot water. Davis informs him that he’ll work the finish line at the Boston Marathon in the morning as a final act of attrition. Tommy injured his knee when we meet him while trying to break down the apartment door of a suspected criminal. The limp becomes an unneeded ailment and hinders our ability to believe he can do everything as a singular character in the movie.
I’m a fan of Wahlberg, but when he dominates the first ten minutes of so many of his films (Deepwater Horizon, Lone Survivor, Rock Star, Invincible, The Fighter, The Gambler, The Happening, Planet of the Apes, The Perfect Storm, and others, we know he’s going not just dominate the screen, but be a hero by the time the movie ends. And there is no reason to believe that Patriots Day will be different. And it’s not. However, this movie has long stretches when Wahlberg is not on screen. Berg does a great job focusing on many other characters and their stories, including the two bombers. We see more of their story than many villains in movies with premises similar to Patriots Day.
The race itself wasn’t much of a focus in itself. I felt there would be more about the race based on the previews. We are introduced to several players in the game very early on, and we have no idea who some are or what role they will play in the film. Ironically, we aren’t introduced to any of the runners. We know that some of the runners were part of the more than 260 people who were wounded and treated at more than two dozen hospitals in the Boston area, but we never got to know any of them. The victims that we learn about mainly were spectators, including a couple named Jessica Kensky (Rachel Brosnahan) and Patrick Downes (Christopher O’Shea), who each lost a lower limb in the explosion. Kensky lost her second leg later, as well. I wasn’t sure why they were as focused when there were so many other victims. However, it all tied together at the end. And also, Berg couldn’t tell every story. The movie would have been ten hours long. But, as I’ll mention quite frequently on here, he got it right, just as he’s gotten it right in so many of the other movies he directed.
Some other key players that we learn about in addition to Tommy, Commissioner Davis, Jessica, and Patrick are Tommy’s wife Carol (Michelle Monaghan – Gone Baby Gone, Source Code), a Chinese student named Dun Meng (Jimmy O. Yang) who was studying at MIT and trying to meet her girls in his new city and country, Boston Police Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese (J.K. Simmons – Whiplash, Juno), Boston Governor Deval Patrick (Michael Beach – F/X’s Sons of Anarchy, NBC’s Third Watch), Officer Sean Collier (Jake Picking), FBI Special Agent Richard DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon – Mystic River, Murder in the First), and bombers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Alex Wolff) and Tamerlan Tsarnaev (Themo Melikidze). We learn about each of these people on a personal level. We learn about their backgrounds and their drive. Often, it feels like there are too many characters, but Berg is masterful at bringing these characters to the screen at the right time. We get the human component of many of those involved with this story.
There’s not much to say about this movie that you don’t already know. This event is still so fresh in our memory. What you might not have remembered was the number of people killed (probably lower than you think) and the number of people injured (probably higher than you think). For whatever reason, I also thought Tamerlan was killed much more quickly than he was, and Dzhokhar was captured more quickly. I also didn’t know the city of Boston was closed down for 100 hours. I remember thinking that the whole situation ended faster than it did. I appreciated how quickly the command center was set up and how Agent DesL took charge of the investigation, identifying the situation as terrorism instantly and then refusing to release the identifications of the two men until they were confident they had the right guys. He remained cool, calm, and collected in the most intense situations. Like many others, he was an unsung hero.
“Boston Strong” was also a primary theme, yet for as much as they said it, I didn’t feel it as much as I thought. I did appreciate the technology used to identify the suspects. I thought the chase and the shootouts were very well done. I’m not too fond of shootouts for the sake of shootouts, but I would appreciate them as much as anyone if the event were factual. According to Patriots Day Movie vs. True Story of Boston Marathon Bombing, most of this looks pretty accurate to what happened.
Berg did an excellent job of spreading the story. My biggest issue was how much of a hero Wahlberg’s Tommy was made out to be. This character didn’t even exist, yet he seemed to find himself in every important scene. Again, I know he was a composite character, but I don’t understand why he couldn’t be one of the police officers who played a role that day. I imagine it was a tough decision, but maybe it wasn’t so much. Still, this wasn’t a story about the heroism of a fictional character. It was about the heroism of real-life characters, many of which we got to see but many of which we did not.
Was it too early for this movie? Probably. But I’ll say this. I’ve given eulogies at three different funerals. It’s a challenging and emotional thing to do. But I loved all three of those people. So, I fought my fears and composed myself as best as possible to deliver tributes about these important people. And when people ask why, knowing how tough it is to honor someone in this way under these sad circumstances, I say that I do them because I know I’ll do them as right as I possibly can, and I don’t want to see others speaking of them and being disappointed. In these situations, I’d rather bet on myself than on others. The same can be said about a movie like Patriots Day. Berg felt that he could do this movie better than anyone else and, likely, didn’t want to wait too long in fear that someone else would try to come along and not do the film justice. Berg did the film justice, making it a smooth, must-watch from beginning to end.
Plot 10/10
Character Development 8/10
Character Chemistry 8/10
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 9.5/10
Directing 9.5/10
Cinematography 9/10
Sound 10/10
Hook and Reel 10/10
Universal Relevance 10/10
93%
A-
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