Patriots Day - Review Thread

Is it too soon for a movie about the Boston Marathon Bombings? One could make the argument for that. The same argument was made for United 93 back in 2006, and yet, that didn't stop that particular film from being great. The same can now be said for Peter Berg's Patriots Day, which in many ways reminded me of Paul Greengrass's 9/11 film. But while this film is centered around that devastating event from 2013, Patriots Day is more about the triumph of the human spirit that resulted in the following days during the course of the manhunt for the perpetrators. In that respect, Patriots Day is an extremely moving and inspiring film, and it also functions incredibly well as a procedural. To again draw a comparison with another movie, this film had me on the edge of my seat and in genuine suspense during the last two-thirds, in spite of already knowing the outcome, not unlike the climax of Zero Dark Thirty. But to keep drawing comparisons here would be to minimize the work of director Peter Berg, who does a tremendous job with this film from top to bottom. His docu-drama sense of storytelling makes this movie all the more visceral and real, and while I admit that can often make this movie pretty hard to watch at times, it never feels like Berg is exploiting the situation or the victims; instead, he's honoring them in true fashion. Patriots Day works incredibly, and perhaps uncomfortably, well as a recreation of these couple of days and it also works as a thriller, and Berg melds those two approaches together almost flawlessly. Mark Wahlberg anchors everything effectively, as do John Goodman, Kevin Bacon, Michelle Monaghan and JK Simmons to varying degrees.

Again, Patriots Day can often be a very emotionally trying film, but it is without a doubt one of the most powerful film experiences I had from a 2016 film.

****/****