Patriots Day (2016)

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Kevin Bacon, John Goodman, J.K. Simmons, Michelle Monaghan, Alex Wolff, and Jimmy O. Yang, with small roles from David Ortiz, Sean Avery, and Token
Grade: A-

As much as I’d love to roast Patriots Day for having Mark Wahlberg be as Mark Wahlberg-y as possible, I can’t. This was actually a damn good movie.

Summary

On April 14, 2013, Boston PD Sgt. Tommy Saunders (Wahlberg) busts into a suspect named Harold’s apartment and hurts his knee in the process of doing so. After his guys apprehend Harold for questioning, Police Commissioner Ed Davis (Goodman) shows up during Tommy’s interrogation. Tommy wants a bigger role in the department but as he explains this to Ed, he overhears the other cops discussing how they thought Tommy was suspended and he yells at both of them. Returning to the conversation, Ed tells Tommy he’s got duty at the Boston Marathon the next day and if he does well for this event, he’ll finally be out of the doghouse in the department. At 10:16PM, we see young couple Patrick Downes (Christopher O’Shea) and Jessica Kensky (Rachel Brosnahan) eat dinner and discuss going to the Boston Marathon the next day. At 11:28PM, we transition to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where Officer Sean Collier (Jake Picking) visits this girl Li (Lana Condor) and her student group as they work on some robot technology. She promises to go to a Zac Brown Band concert with him and holds his hand as she says it. At 12:55AM, Tommy comes home to his wife Carol (Monaghan), but he has to sleep on the couch because he woke her up late coming from the bar.

It’s now April 15th: Patriots’ Day. At 6:34AM, 3 hours before the marathon, Danny (Yang) talks to his parents about his new car and goes on a run. At 7:08AM, we see the Tsarnaev family at home. Meanwhile, we see Tommy and Carol get ready for work, with Tommy still annoyed at having such a demeaning job for the day. In Watertown at 7:54AM, 7 miles west of Boston, we see Sgt. Jeffrey Pugliese (Simmons) pick up a muffin for his wife. At 8:42AM, we see everyone gearing up for the marathon. Police Superintendent Billy Evans (James Colby) gives Tommy finish line duty. Soon after, Tommy calls Carol to get him a bigger knee brace because his knee is too swollen for the one he’s wearing. At the Tsarnaev home, brothers Tamerlan (Themo Melikidze) and Dzhokhar (Wolff) discuss their plan. Even though Dzhokhar expresses some doubts, Tamerlan calms his nerves. The marathon begins (with Billy representing Boston PD in it), and we see quick cuts of each supporting character to remind us of them as the race commences.

After Sean tells his friends how he asked Li out, we see Danny talking to someone about his new app, Tommy getting his balls busted by some fellow officers, and Patrick and Jessica go out for lunch. Carol gives Tommy the knee brace and after she leaves, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are spotted leaving backpacks in two different areas of the crowd. After Ed leaves following a playful conversation with Tommy, and numerous people cross the finish line, the bombs go off and everyone is sent into a panic. There are injuries, severed limbs, and blood everywhere. Tommy does his best to take charge of the situation, especially after seeing that Carol is okay. Sadly, Patrick and Jessica are badly injured, as are countless others. FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard DesLauriers (Bacon), Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick (Michael Beach), and Ed show up to survey the scene and after taking a look at some of the debris, Richard determines its terrorism and how he’s going to need a big command center to start their tracking of the terrorists in question. With more bombings being a possibility, the race is on to track these two before anything worse can potentially happen.

My Thoughts:

Making a film about a real-life tragedy can be tough. The goal should be to find a good balance between being able to accurately depict what happened while still changing things when needed to make an exciting narrative worth seeing. For many reasons, I was apprehensive in watching a movie like Patriots Day. First of all, it came out a little too quickly after the real-life event it was based on. It’s not that the subject is too sensitive because this almost never bothers me. However, because of how close in time it was to the actual event, I was worried it wouldn’t have the same emotional appeal because I’m already well aware of the tragedy and the outcome. My immediate thought when the film was released was that they should’ve waited at least a couple more years. My next issue came after the cast reveal.

This was when the age-old question came up: How is Mark Wahlberg going to make this about himself?

This guy can’t let any movie about Boston go on without him knowing about it. Actually, I think there’s a law that was passed in which it’s illegal to have an action movie set in Boston and not have Mark Wahlberg in it. I think it’s in his contract or something. I’m honestly surprised he didn’t sue to be a part of The Town. With a tragedy like the Boston Marathon being the plot of the movie, and a Boston cop being the main character, of course the script had to land near Wahlberg somehow.

Now, if you’re not a fan of his, you may get a little annoyed about his importance to the movie because though he’s basically the only character that didn’t exist in real life, he finds himself at the center of it all and plays a big part in saving the day. For people who were directly involved in the tragedy, or are from the Boston area, they might find this rather irritating. However, as a movie fan, I see both sides of it. On one side, yes Mark Wahlberg putting himself in this position and making his character the most important one is a little maddening. On the other hand, a composite character like Tommy is needed for the movie to flow better and make the narrative easier to follow. It may not be 100% what happened, but sometimes you have to adjust to make the movie that much better. When you consider this and understand how it was much easier to follow this composite character over any other individual character to make the narrative flow, I can’t hate on it. Mark Wahlberg’s Tommy is actually a pretty solid, prideful Bostonian audiences can get behind, especially once he drops the whole “My leg hurts” shtick from the beginning of the movie because of how inconsequential it is to what’s going on around him.

I have to say the depiction of the bombing and the horrifying aftermath of the explosions was astoundingly good. It places you directly in the center of the action, and you can feel the intensity of it all. The look of horror coming from Tommy, and everyone involved as they survey the scene of destruction was one of the most carefully crafted and realistic tragedy scenes I’ve seen in years. It’s on the level of some of your favorite war movies. Bringing a real event like this to life, with the screaming, the crying, and unapologetic blood-splattered happenings all around, you’re amazed at how well it puts you front and center in the middle of the action. It’s riveting cinema, giving you absolute chills due to the performance of everyone involved and the realism coming from it. Director Peter Berg should get a round of applause for this scene alone. When the child is crying as he sees his father injured on the ground, it was a chef’s kiss to the action as our eyes are now widened to the scope of the scene. Later in the scene, we just follow Tommy as he tries to act levelheaded in the chaos around him because the area needs a leader, and it’s spellbinding. He’s never seen something like this before, but he does his job on an incredible level and in the face of destruction and danger, gaining the respect of the characters and the audience watching alike. What follows is the manhunt. This is what I loved about Patriots Day. I haven’t felt this patriotic when watching a movie in years. It’s inspiring. You know when you want to work out after watching Rocky? Well after you watch Patriots Day, you may want to become a cop and defend this country from domestic terrorism…

…Well, maybe that’s a stretch.

I will say it’s very similar to how I felt the first time I watched Independence Day but in a different way. It’s that feeling of unity against a common enemy that is unparalleled. After watching a movie like Patriots Day, I would be shocked if you didn’t feel pride in our American people.

In a time where pessimism regarding America’s exploits is running rampant from citizen to citizen, a movie like Patriots Day is a great reminder of what is possible and how good we can be when we’re all on the same page. You start to feel more patriotic than you ever felt once those bombs go off. Following this, you’re rooting for the good guys and really, America as a country in general. There’s one scene in which the Tsarnaev brothers are in the midst of a shootout with a bunch of no-name police officers, but this is how I knew how good the film was doing. Despite not seeing these cops beforehand and not knowing their names (before J.K. Simmons’s Jeffrey Pugliese showed up), I was rooting for them like it was Luke Skywalker taking on Darth Vader. It didn’t matter if we didn’t know these cops beforehand and unknown actors were portraying them, they’re fighting for America and taking on two ruthless terrorists that have killed and plan on killing again. It didn’t matter. The realism and the gravity of the situation was felt. I’ll forever be on the side for whoever is fighting for us and the people that need it. We need this type of inspiration to fire us up and it worked incredibly in this film. Even in the small interaction Tommy has with Danny, where he gives him props for being able to elude the brothers when he was kidnapped. Danny simply tells him, “Go catch those motherfuckers!”.

Damn it! How does that not get you hyped?! Let’s get them! At that point, it doesn’t matter if it’s Mark Wahlberg or whoever else. Stop these evil motherfuckers!

It’s these types of goosebump-filled moments that make Patriots Day rise past the regular action movie it could easily be, into a rousing thriller honoring the toughness of the American people and their willingness to respond when they are needed most.

The attention to detail was also noticeable. From the FBI agents and their strategies on how to figure out who’s behind this mess, to the security camera footage spliced into specific scenes when characters are in a public setting, the dedication and research done to make this film as accurate as possible as well as consistently entertaining throughout shows. Seeing things from the Tsarnaev brothers’ perspective was also interesting. Though the insight provided on their lives is relatively minimal compared to the other characters, it added a lot to the overall film to get an understanding of their mindsets and motivations. Plus, the intensity in the carjacking scene with Danny was crazy, as was the interrogation of Katie. I can’t believe she got away with that shit.

I will say the real-life interviews felt like overkill. It just felt a tad bit too much. The movie already runs a little long, so this added ending dragged more than intended. I would’ve just played it side-by-side with the mid-credits.

Regardless, Patriots Day is one hell of a tribute to all those that helped during the tragedy of the Boston Marathon bombing, showing us how extraordinary and inspiring regular, everyday Americans can be when pushed. When we come together because you hurt some of our own, we are hard to beat. It’s exciting, it’s entertaining, and it’s a manhunt for the ages.