Patriots Day

UK Release Date. 23 February 2017
Certification. 15 
Running Time. 2 hours 13 mins
Director. Peter Berg
Cast. John Goodman, Themo Melikidze, Michelle Monaghan, J.K. Simmons, Mark Wahlberg, Alex Wolff.
Rating. 60%

Review.

In the past decade, the actor turned writer and director, Peter Berg has established himself as a competent director of routinely under-appreciated films based on true events, the likes of Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon and Patriots Day.

The storyline of Patriots Day centres on the events surrounding the bombing of the 2013 Boston Marathon and the ensuing manhunt to track down and capture the perpetrators. 

Mark Wahlberg is cast as Tommy Saunders, a fictional composite character, representing numerous Boston law enforcement officers who were on duty at the marathon and who aided in the subsequent manhunt. With the exception of Tommy's wife, Carol Saunders (played by Michelle Monaghan), all of the other film's characters are real people,

• Police Commissioner Ed Davis is played by John Goodman
• Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is played by Michael Beach
• Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese of the Watertown Police is played by J.K. Simmons
• FBI Special Agent, Richard DesLauriers is played by Kevin Bacon
• Tamerlan Tsarnaev is played by Themo Melikidze
• The younger Tsarnaev brother, Dzhokhar is played by Alex Wolff
• Tamerlan's wife, Katherine Russell is played by Melissa Benoist
• Student, Dun Meng is played by Jimmy O. Yang
• And finally, Rachel Brosnahan and Christopher O'Shea, play a young married couple - Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes - who each lost a leg as a result of the blasts on Boylston Street.

Joining this ensemble cast is the city itself - every bit the star as Mark Wahlberg. Peter Berg is at great pains to show the audience spectacular panoramic views of the Boston skyline amidst the action. Patriots Day is a tribute to the resilient spirit of Boston and to all those caught up in the attack. 

As I intimated earlier, Berg is good at what he does. He creates a morally unambiguous narrative where an everyday, blue-collar hero facing insurmountable odds must defeat a manifestation of evil. The film's remorseless chronological acknowledgement, which combined with archive footage seamlessly blended with pragmatic, shot footage gives Patriots Day an almost documentary feel. 

However, the film inhabits the uneasy position of a fresh traumatic experience used as entertainment for a mass audience, much in the same way many New York inhabitants had misgivings about Oliver Stone's World Trade Center. For the most part, the events of April 2013 are handled with a sombre tone that neither simplifies the bombers' mindset (which is deliberately absent) nor overplays the complicated emotions of anger and patriotism.