Wick's Review

Summary - Really Great 4.5

Patriots Day gets up close and personal with the Boston Marathon bombing and its aftermath. By turns moving, enraging, loving and occasionally funny, it’s an unflinching look at lone wolf terrorism and how one American city fought back against Islamism in their midst. Two previously unseen aspects jump out.

First, the Tsarnaev brothers are shown prepping their act of terrorism, coming across as craving recognition, while being pathologically deluded. These domestic scenes are bracing in their banality: a wife and baby mill about as the brothers watch online Islamist videos and pack ball-bearings in pressure-cooker bombs.

The other is the Battle of Watertown, when the two terrorists used a cache of homemade explosives in a firefight with police. Even allowing that the movie may have punched it up from actual reality, this was a major encounter, with hundreds of rounds fired and several bombs and/or grenades used. Shocking!

Director Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg have become past-masters at turning recent history into terrific movies, with Patriots Day following Deepwater Horizon & Lone Survivor. This time Wahlberg gets to stay close to home, given his Boston boyhood. What a wonderful gift for him to give, and Boston to receive.

Their Patriots Day is a special movie: entertaining, thrilling, insightful, important. IOW, it’s a must-see.

Acting - Great 4.0

Mark Wahlberg heads a very strong cast that includes John Goodman, J.K. Simmons & Kevin Bacon.

Wahlberg plays a fictional Boston Police Sergeant who is involved throughout the event. He’s terrific, having long since become an extremely charming and relatable performer of everyman roles. Michelle Monaghan matches up well with him as his wife.

Boston Police & Pols

• John Goodman as Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis: The great Goodman has lost weight, but his acting impact remains substantial.
• J. K. Simmons as Watertown Police Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese: Simmons is never less than great, here as the hero of the Battle of Watertown.
• Vincent Curatola as Mayor of Boston Thomas Menino: Would have liked to have seen more of the always entertaining Menino.
• Michael Beach as Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick
• James Colby as Boston Police Superintendent William Evans

Feds

• Kevin Bacon as Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent in the FBI’s Boston field office: Bacon is his usual lean and incisive presence.
• Khandi Alexander as Interrogator

Islamist Terrorists

• Alex Wolff as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: Wolff gives the elder Tsarnaev brother a brutal self-confidence.
• Themo Melikidze as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the callow younger brother
• Melissa Benoist as Katherine Russell, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s wife

Terror Victims

• Jimmy O. Yang as Dun Meng, the driver the Tsarnaevs carjacked on April 19
• Rachel Brosnahan as Jessica Kensky, wife of Patrick Downes
• Christopher O’Shea as Patrick Downes, husband of Jessica Kensky

Others

• David Ortiz cameos as himself

Film - Perfect 5.0

Peter Berg is today’s best filmmaker when it comes to reality-based action films, especially those that involve tough men in tough situations. Patriots Day is among his best, which is saying something for the director of the sainted Lone Survivor.

His touchstones include personal or romantic grace notes. These humanize characters who are living through tragic events. For instance, he follows a couple in Patriots Day who have their legs blown off, but not before we meet them as sweet newlyweds. Even the domestic scenes of the Islamist terrorists show them as fully realized human beings, even as he then shows them undertaking their heinous war crimes.

Edge - Risqué 2.5

Reality - Glib 1.2

Mark Wahlberg’s character, a Boston Police Sergeant, is made-up, a composite presumably. Same for his wife. Other elements of dramatic license include the romance between a student and the slain MIT police officer. Otherwise, the movie seems impressively inline with the actual event.

History vs. Hollywood has details.

Of more interest is the movie’s peek into the mindset of home grown Islamist terrorists. This comes mostly from their diatribes to a carjacked driver. They apparently believe that 9/11 was a false-flag operation and that Islam is unfairly persecuted, among other delusions. Mostly, they evidence the desire for glory common to many young men, and have come to believe they’ve discovered a shortcut for achieving it.

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