Patriots Day
/"We got multiple explosions. We need help down here!"
Filmology Rating: 2.83 out of 4
When two bombs explode during the Boston Marathon, heroes step up to help the wounded, find the bombers, and help a wounded city become Boston Strong.
I really wasn’t sure what direction this movie was going to take. Was this going to be a thriller? Was it going to somehow be turned into an action movie? Could this be only a drama? I was very happily surprised that this was a very good blend of all of those genres. When the bombs go off, it was incredibly realistic and graphic. I was in tears and on the edge of my seat watching the recreation of that horrific event. You felt like you were there. It was both terrifying and very well done. Then in the middle of the movie, it turned into a really good slow building thriller that showed the aftermath of the event; the many heroes that came together to help the victims and to also find the men responsible for the bombings. The closing act then brought forth the suspenseful shootout and manhunt, both scenes done really well. This movie had a great mix of knowing when to pull back a little and build its characters and when to really hit home and build the suspense.
Now people will wonder, how realistic is this movie? Is it more history or Hollywood? Well to save you guys the trouble, here is an article that goes over it. The TL:DR version is that yes this movie was pretty accurate minus the fictional main character that Mark Wahlberg played. Down below is the article, it’s worth the read in my opinion.
http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/patriots-day/
Now even though Wahlberg’s character was fictional, he was a really good addition to the story and did a really good job. His role in this movie reminded me a lot of his role in the movie Lone Survivor, which was directed by the same person that did this film, Peter Berg. Wahlberg did have this speech towards the end of the movie, while being very inspirational, felt a little forced. The movie itself is incredibly emotional; the empathy that the audience feels for the victims and heroism from the police forces and first responders was very strong. I didn’t think the speech was needed to push it even more but oh well. Nevertheless, Wahlberg did a really good job along with the many other actors and actresses in this film. (Kevin Bacon, J.K. Simmons, Michelle Monaghan, and John Goodman are some other big names)
Patriots Day does come off as a little political and preachy at times but that didn’t take away anything from the film in my opinion. Those things are drowned out by theme of Boston Strong and the overall goodness and love for one another. How an event of hate can lead to so much love for complete strangers. Love conquers all. I love this and the end of the movie has a very touching tribute to the Boston Marathon bombing survivors and has some of those survivors speak. Once again, myself and the audience were in tears. Patriots Day was a well-rounded movie that is an emotional powerhouse.
Rating: See It
-Nick
Before jumping into my review headfirst I feel that I must state that I have yet to watch the HBO documentary Marathon: The Patriots Day Bombing. I will be watching it within the next few days and hope to get a review of it up as well. As for this film, the third collaboration between Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg, I find myself completely torn about how I feel.
Many of us remember the events that took place on April 15, 2013. Two brothers Dzhokhar, played in the film by Alex Wolff, and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, played by Themo Melikidze, set off two bombs at the Boston Marathon which set the city and country into a panic.
Patriots Day feels in many ways to be hero-worship for Mark Wahlberg. Wahlberg has lately been playing the character who needs to save the day and give humanity its hope back, from Marcus Luttrell in Lone Survivor to Cade Yeager in Transformers: Age of Extinction. Wahlberg clearly has a case of narcissism that is getting rather hard to handle when you always see him as the glowing boy scout who can do no wrong. It also must be said that Wahlberg is a producer on this film so he could have easily asked the writers, Peter Berg, Matt Cook, and Joshua Zetumer, to give himself a character with some dimension rather than the Blue Lives Matter posterboy. While Wahlberg’s acting in the film is adequate, he doesn’t do anything in the film to deserve the hero worship or to try and deliver a Tolkienesque monologue.
And for the man behind the camera, Peter Berg. For those who have not read my Deepwater Horizon review I’ll repeat what I said there: I often find Berg to be somewhat of a hack director, always relying on emotional manipulation to force his audience to feel a false sense of admiration towards his work. While Deepwater Horizon did make me question my thoughts about Berg slightly, Patriots Day helps reinforce my negative thoughts toward him. This film clearly wants to go for a documentary feel, giving you a day in the life of some of the victims and government officials who were involved with the attacks. The film even feels that it is clever enough to put actual footage into the film and to then capitalize on the tragedy. It feels at times that Berg would rather be making a documentary about these events instead of a narrative. A narrative needs to have focus but instead Berg throws everything into the pot hoping that it will all cook together but what you are instead left with is a cake that is mostly raw and about to crumble apart.
One huge disappointment for me was the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. The duo have done fantastic work with David Fincher on the films The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Gone Girl; but with this film they feel second rate. Perhaps the score by itself is good, I haven’t listened to it by itself nor do I plan on it, but it doesn’t fit this film. Reznor and Ross are perfect at selling confusion and deception but for the majority of this film those aspects are downplayed. The only moment that I liked the score was when Dun Meng, played by Jimmy O. Yang, escapes from his captures to prevent further damage from happening. However the editing and the acting in that scene make it all laughable, it’s the perfect example of visual and audio clashing against each other.
Only two moments in this film felt true to me. The first being when Tommy is giving a monologue about how love can conquer the darkest of times. While I don’t believe that Mark Wahlberg himself believes the words that he is speaking, the montage of footage and score actually help me feel something during the scene. The only other time that I felt uplifted during the film was when some of the actual victims were speaking in the moments before the credits rolled. The score is doing everything it can to pull at your heartstrings and the visuals that are being shown are terrifying at one moment and then the next are uplifting to the human spirit. Berg is clearly manipulating the audience, but for those brief moments I let him and I found myself with a tear rolling down my face.
For the majority of the running time of this film I was left unimpressed and found my mind wandering to why we even want films like this and then the end of the movie happened. I was left remembering what Boston Strong means to us as a country, how tragedy always seems to bring the best out in our society. I left this film feeling somewhat hopeful about the future that we face as a country, hoping that the tragedy unfolding will only make us stronger.
Rating: Rent It
-Jonny G