Patriot's Day Review

R: Violence, Realistically Graphic Injury Images, Language Throughout and Some Drug Use

Lionsgate, CBS Films

2 Hrs and 10 Minutes

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Kevin Bacon, John Goodman, J. K. Simmons, Michelle Monaghan, Alex Wolff, Themo Melikidze, Michael Beach, Rachel Brosnahan, Melissa Benoist, Lana Condor

In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, police Sgt. Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg) joins courageous survivors, first responders and other investigators in a race against the clock to hunt down the suspects.

REVIEW: I could’ve sworn Peter Berg just released a movie not so long ago. Remember that Mark Wahlberg film Deepwater Horizon? Its been so long, it felt like that it was released yesterday. Wait, it kinda was. Deepwater was released nearly two months ago and now Peter Berg is back with a Mark-Wahlberg-true-events-biopic-double-tap. Similar to Jeff Nichols releasing two films within this year with Joel Egerton in the lead. 

THE GOOD: Patriots Day follows the same narrative styling as Deepwater Horizon. Where Deepwater Horizon centered on the BP Oil Spill and the people on the rig, Patriots Day centers on the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing as it expands it’s setting of Massachusetts and the people who live in it associated with these events. It centers on many people from the heroes, victims, and even surprisingly the terrorists themselves. It isn’t one sided where you just see the people who were affected as you also see the people responsible for this terrorist act including people they were associated with. The film even covers one of the terrorist’s college dorm roommates who doesn't interact with anybody else except each other. It’s as if Berg and the writing team were making sure the film covered everyone that was at the scene, even if a dog took a leak on a hydrant at the marathon, it needs to be covered. It’s like they took all internet sources on google and applied it to the narrative. 

The film goes from a drama to a brutal police procedural. It has all the same beats where Horizon had from the lives of these families then the horrific disaster occurs and then the heroics of people getting everyone to safety. What helps this elevate it from Horizon is what it does after the event occurs: try to find the people responsible. During the violent scene of the bombing, your stomach starts to churn as limbs and body parts are blown up. It’s less graphic than Hacksaw Ridge, but arguably more emotionally effective due to the fact of innocent people facing one of the largest acts of terrorism since 9/11. After the bombing scene, the film gears shift turning into an intense police procedural. It’s edge of your seat pulse-pounding by the second with so many scenes and sequences that are both raw and moving. It’s like watching the Boston version of End of Watch without the found footage. Even one of the film’s climax is a standoff scene that may be the closest thing  you’ll ever get to a theatrical version of Grand Theft Auto. The only thing that was missing was the Wasted sign appearing onscreen.

What Peter Berg can truly capture (which can be said for now all of his past three films now) is the human spirit. As much as it’s hard to admit this, Patriots Day does, in fact, brings out the true American patriot out of you. There hasn’t been a film that made you go AMERICA! since Zero Dark Thirty, and even before then Team America. The film is the perfect portrayal of the American spirit whether you like it or not. It’s a film that will split the audience down the middle for some might come out contemplating if living in Trump’s America may or may not be a bad thing. All the humanity shown in Berg’s previous films is applied to this even more so than Deepwater Horizon at times. 

Mark Wahlberg plays Tommy Saunders whose character is a Mark Wahlberg type. He's quick, he's funny, he's a hothead, and at the end of the day a really nice guy. As much as he's Mark Wahlberg, he’s incredibly charming in this. When you have a Boston actor in a film set in Boston, that accent is sure to come out. It’s hard not to think of John Bennett from Ted. But he does give a great performance. He gets very emotional at perfect times that he needs to. He is one of the only characters that is developed which arguably is cheesy at times but it works. We see how this case gets to him as time goes on where you can tell he's unable to sleep. He even grows dark spots on his eyes which incredibly sad. You don't see characters in so much stress that they grow baggy eyes and maintain them for a majority of the film. Once he has those dark spots, they never come off. In fact it just gets darker.

THE BAD: Horizon contained all of the characters trapped in one location the film was able with setting up each character and wrapping up their conclusions. Since this is such an expansive story with a larger setting, the film takes on so many characters more than they can develop. Before the bombing scene, a lot of characters are introduced but after the scene occurs, a majority of them are ultimately dropped until near the end of the film during an inspirational Mark Wahlberg speech where you see certain characters that you forgot that they were even the film, to begin with.

THE RENDY: It’s weird to me that the actor playing one of the Tsarnaev brothers, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is played by Alex Wolff. Yep, little Alex Wolff brother of Nat from The Naked Brother’s Band who is all grown up is playing a Muslim terrorist. It’s odd because he looks exactly like the guy. After the film I had to reassure myself I am fond of Alex Wolff for this is just a movie. But with this, it’s one of those films that gets a bit too real. It does have it’s fair share of silliness and comedy, but at the end of the day, it’s a genuinely real film that dedicates itself to the lives loss of this tragic event similar to Berg’s other biopics. When they show the cast’s real-life counterparts at the end you see how good the casting was.

One cast member they show to be an ultimate badass is J.K Simmons as the police chief of Watertown. It's weird because I’ve never seen him in a film where he’s smoking weed but in this wakes, bakes, and drives to crime scenes all cool. He even sneaks around and gets closer to his targets. He is pretty much the smartest and coolest dude in the room. Though he doesn’t get much screen time, he is awesome every time he pops onscreen. The only thing the man was missing was some shades.

LAST STATEMENT: Peter Berg’s 2nd 2016 release, Patriots Day is a second juggernaut knockout of a film that captures the human American spirit that will bring out the Patriot in you.

Rating: 4.5/5 | 94%

Super Scene:  Katherine Russell’s Interrogation