One of the most tragic events in U.S history gets a big-screen telling, in Peter Berg’s Patriots Day. In the aftermath of an unspeakable attack, Police Sergeant Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg) joins courageous survivors, first responders and investigators in a race against the clock to hunt down the bombers of the Boston Marathon of 2013 before they strike again. Weaving together the stories of Special Agent Richard DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon), Police Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman), Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese (J.K. Simmons) and nurse Carol Saunders (Michelle Monaghan) this visceral and unflinching chronicle captures the suspense of one of the most sophisticated manhunts in law enforcement history and celebrates the strength of the people of Boston through four days of unsettling fear. Patriots Day is rated R for violence, realistically graphic injury images, language throughout and some drug use.
Peter Berg’s most revealing and most intimate project takes him on a complete full circle of his career, back to the place where it all started; Boston. Being a product of Beantown itself, means that Peter is the perfect man to depict the acts that transpired in one of the darkest days not only in Boston, but in America as a whole. Through an unapologetic stance in filmmaking, Berg displays the beauty of life, and the desire to fight back. That’s really what this movie entails. It isn’t just a story for the iron will of this heroic city, but one of the American spirit that simply will not be broken. It’s a story of love conquering all, and that love being the last weapon against those who lurk in the shadows. Berg’s passionate response to this story is clearly evident in the way he directs real life drama without ever backing down or sugar coating these events to his audience. It is one of the reasons why he has become arguably the most patriotic director working today, emoting a love for the virtue of great American storytelling, while presenting angles to these tragedies not seen in even the age of 24/7 technology.
Berg’s talents as a director reach far greater levels than pointing and shooting. He goes into the smoke cloud where shock and fear devour these people whole, and steadies us through an uncomfortable viewing to the after from every cause. There is a kind of point-of-view feel to the action that is transpiring, piggy-backing us over the shoulders of Wahlberg running into all of the chaos. Nothing here ever feels like a gimmick or artificial to the story, instead presenting a riveting account from ground zero. To give this movie a kind of 3D style of pulse-setting debris and rubble really relates the uncertainty of a situation that is unfolding before our very eyes in real time. Peter’s style in Patriots Day is mostly handheld, and I think that it is appropriate when you’re shooting a movie of great suspense and tragedy. Nothing is ever missed despite the difficulty in the evolving magnitude of everything going on around our protagonists, and that’s a testament to handheld over shaky-cam any day. There’s also a strong artistic value to what Peter does with such intimate set pieces. One scene in particular is a shoot-out between the terrorists and the law enforcement that rattles the very seat of the audience with heart-pounding grit in sound production that shakes the block. This was my personal favorite scene of the movie, as it encapsulates equally the urgency of each side from their point-of-view against the other. Each explosion feels so impactful for this picture, and it adds to an already visually rewarding experience where Berg once again takes us to the heart of the story.
The story has a couple of problems that took away from my experience, and it’s mostly in the decision to make this an ensemble story that follows as many as ten different characters throughout. There’s so much fluff in a movie like this that barely ever goes anywhere, and more times than not it feels like a desperate attempt in exposition to push this past the two hour barrier, a mark it succeeds at only because each character is given ample time in front of the camera to push an unnecessary narrative. Is it nice to present the tragedy from so many personal angles? Sure, but these story arcs could be removed all the same and nothing would be sacrificed creatively in the story. Those characters involved in big events don’t need a backstory before it, and could instead just be seen on camera for that one particular scene. For this movie to follow just Mark Wahlberg’s character and the terrorists, would make this A much tighter and smooth transition from scene-to-scene, instead of halting the story every few minutes to see the same event from another angle in character. What does work in story is how this trio of screenwriters depict the unfurling of events quickly against A real time backdrop. This movie is very informative with what goes into a mystery this big, and the process of weeding down suspects to the final one. These kind of searching for clues on surveillance tapes and crime scene evidence, is what gives Patriots Day a refreshing creativity from other biopics that sometimes don’t relate enough to the search. What I found startling was just how fast the FBI invades this city and sets up camp in a matter of hours, and it proves further that Berg reveled in studying the first act of this story, and treated it just as important as the two that followed.
Being that this is an ensemble piece, there are only brief glimpses of stirring performances. Wahlberg in particular is playing his usual hero in Berg movies such as Lone Survivor and Deepwater Horizon, but there’s not as much emphasis on his character for the dependency of this script. Despite one scene where he gives the speech about love that is heard in the trailers, Wahlberg can relax a little more than he did on the previous two films, and that is because of a strong big name supporting cast. John Goodman and J.K Simmons are enjoyable in their charismatic deliveries. Melissa Benoist steals scenes being in just three of them in the movie, but her character is something different and fresh for the young starlet, and I think it might be her best performance to date. Better than all of those however, is Kevin Bacon proving that he still has the ability to hold the audience in his hands, with long winded dialogue and soft-spoken energy. I was pleading for more time with this character throughout the movie, and that’s a testament to Bacon’s ability to play the every-man, despite being an FBI invader to the Boston P.D and these events that anyone had any time to intake before Bacon and crew showed up.
Patriots Day earns its heartfelt responses from the audience without settling for cringe-worthy American exploitative propaganda or manipulating the audience with emotions not faithful to the scene. Besides some narrative decisions that hinder this movie from ever being great, Peter Berg does once again triumph in shadowing the heroism in another American tragedy, this time on our own vulnerable soil. Peter’s January treat shows us the importance in community, and the heart that it takes to keep running through life’s biggest obstacles.
7/10