Review: Patriots Day

The day of April 15, 2013 in Boston started off like any other and ended with 3 people killed and approximately 264 injured by two homemade bombs during the Boston Marathon. Yet from the terror and tragedy emerged a community of civilians and law enforcement that exemplified strength and courage.

Patriots Day marks the third collaboration between director Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg and it, like their previous works Lone Survivor and Deepwater Horizon, paints an indelible and gut-wrenching portrait of the ordinary men and women on the frontlines who not only get their jobs done, but get them done when they're needed the most. Berg and co-screenwriters Matt Cook and Joshua Zetumer narrow their focus to the key players: Wahlberg's Boston policeman Tommy Saunders, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman), Watertown Police Sargeant Jeffrey Pugliese (J.K. Simmons), FBI Special Agent Richard DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon), and the perpetrators behind the attack, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev (Alex Wolff and Themo Melikidze).

Berg structures the film in three acts: the hours leading to the bombing, the ensuing pandemonium from the bombing, and the following four days during which authorities scrambled to identify and capture the men responsible for the deadly event. The calm before the chaos is indeed just that: everyday people like Saunders, Pugliese and even the Tsarnaevs going about their daily routines. There's also attention paid to Chinese immigrant Dun Meng (Jimmy O. Yang) and MIT campus cop Sean Collier (Jake Picking) as well as a young married couple and a father and three-year-old son, all of whom will be irrevocably woven into the fabric of this narrative. At the site of the marathon, barricades are put into position as local authorities sweep the area for bombs and news reporters run through their reports. The runners make their way to the starting line as crowds swell along the route.

Then the marathon begins and Berg ramps up the tension - one knows what's about to happen and yet the first explosion is still a surprise. Berg utilises a combination of surveillance camera footage, aerial shots from the copters, and video from mobile phones to convey the dizzying confusion. An overhead image observes a cloud of grey smoke dissipate to reveal the bodies strewn on the ground. The film cuts to and fro the tableaus of shock and blood as people are struggling to register not just what happened but the sight of severed limbs and all the blood around them. Saunders makes his way from the first explosion site to the second, yelling at his fellow officers and anyone able-bodied to clear all the roads so that the ambulances and all other medical personnel can come to the finish line, for all mobile phones to be confiscated, and for the officials to shut down the still active marathon.

Berg stages the attacks and its immediate aftermath with a gritty and naturalistic kineticism that is grippingly immersive. Even more impressive is the stand-off between the Tsarnaevs and the Boston and Watertown police units. The suburban area becomes a virtual battlefield as police do their best to withstand the crude grenades and gunfire from the brothers. Simmons provides one of the film's genuinely cathartic moments when he strides onto the scene, coolly engages in face-to-face combat with Tamerlan, and then physically takes him down. Khandi Alexander equally commands her few minutes of screen time as the interrogator who presses Tamerlan's wife Katherine Russell (Melissa Benoist) to confess her knowledge of her husband's plans.

Technically accomplished, clear-eyed and full-hearted in its intent, and inescapably heartbreaking (the shot of a police officer guarding the covered body of the attack's youngest victim is both chilling and sorrowful), Patriots Day pays respectful homage to resolve and resiliency of the city and its people. Documentary footage and interviews featuring the real-life figures and survivors ends the film on a moving and inspirational note.

Patriots Day

Directed by: Peter Berg

Written by: Peter Berg, Matt Cook, Joshua Zetumer

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, John Goodman, JK Simmons, Michelle Monaghan, Kevin Bacon, Melissa Benoist, Khandi Alexander, Alex Wolff, Themo Melikidze, Jake Picking, Jimmy O. Yang