Patriots Day

Dir: Peter Berg

2017

**

Peter Berg’s Patriots Day is an action crime thriller concentrating on the real life bombing of the 2013 Boston Marathon that left three dead and serval injured, and the subsequent man-hunt for the two suspected terrorists. This was to be a film that followed the events as they happened, specifically based on the experiences of Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis but after CBS acquired the popular book Boston Strong, the two ideas were merged to create a fictional account with factual elements. I feel this was a mistake. I understand why film makers change certain aspects of a true story to give the audience an overview best suited to the run time of a typical feature length movie but there are time when fact is of the upmost importance. You can’t give a vague outline of historical events when you have the facts and when it is important. The Boston Marathon bombings happened three years before the movie, the facts and turn of events are still very fresh in the memory. Why twist something like an act of terrorist into a fictional story for entertainment. I find it stupid, dangerous and distasteful. That said, it’s such a badly made film I can’t see anyone really caring too much and thankfully not that many people went to go and see it. It is the third collaboration between Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg, and the third time they’ve twisted fact to suit their own obsession with mindless action. Wahlberg was originally said to be against the movie and refused to be in it. He only accepted after reading the script and realizing that he was one of very few actors who could make the movie right. Wahlberg plays a fictional character who is meant to be a composite of many Boston police officers who were at the Marathon and aided in the subsequent manhunt following the bombing. He’s a cliché Boston cop who doesn’t follow orders, is brash and not afraid to tell his boss where to stick it. A bit insulting to Boston cops if you ask me, and why a film that is meant to be factual, about real life events, spends most of the run time concentrating on a fictional character is puzzling. He loves Boston though, and that is supposedly enough. The supporting cast is pretty good, including J.K. Simmons, John Goodman, Kevin Bacon and Michelle Monaghan but there are no stand-out performances. J.K. Simmons’ portrayal of Police Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese is distastefully action-hero like and John Goodman’s Ed Davis get very little screen time considering the movie was originally meant to be about him. Kevin Bacon’s Head of FBI performance is so clichéd I’m sure they could have CGI’ed it and saved some money. It’s an odd tribute, that’s for sure. I did like the story of Patrick Downes and Jessica Kensky, the young couple who were next to the first bomb at the time of detonation who both lost limbs but when it came to it, the best part of their story came during the end credits where we see them speaking for themselves in an interview. It’s a delicate story turned into a lazy action film. I’m from London, I know the importance of a City coming together after a tragic event such as this but I don’t think a fictional account that spouts cliché, stereotype and ideas of patriotism is really what the world needs. The last scene shows the speech Red Sox player David Ortiz gave during a game played just days after the events. In it, he delivers an unarticulated delivery on peace and unity, before saying the F word live on television. The speech, much like the film, is well intended I’m sure, just wincingly distasteful, utterly unnecessary and just a little bit of an insult.