"Patriots Day" (2.5 stars out of 4)

Patriots Day

(2.5 stars out of 4)

With 2013’s Lone Survivor and this year’s Deepwater Horizon, director Peter Berg seems to have cornered the market on real-life disaster films based on recent events. The fact that both star Mark Wahlberg seems only logical to maintain continuity. Berg and Wahlberg continue this trend with Patriots Day, the story of the events surrounding the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. Much like Lone Survivor, Patriots Day hits the right notes needed to tell a tense real-life story but is severely limited because of clumsy dialogue.

Police officer Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg) is working security at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon. After terrorists (Alex Wolff and Themo Melikidze) place and detonate two bombs near the finish line, the city of Boston starts the process of finding and capturing those who are responsible for the explosions. Saunders and the FBI try to make sense of the destruction, all while the terrorists plan out their next attack.

One of the most surprising aspects of Patriots Day is the restraint that Berg shows in the execution of such recent and devastating events. The attack and the story around it could have easily have been presented in a truly ham-fisted and tactless way, with graphic violence delivered in hyper-kinetic editing with a soaring and mournful score. One of the most refreshing aspects of the film is that it doesn’t feel exploitative. While Berg is not afraid to show the attack and the aftermath, it is much more of a means for setting up the following investigation. It is not the overly grotesque and melodramatic presentation that a lesser director would have offered. Berg has always had a skill with presenting suspense, action, and touching on the human elements found in that story. Like Lone Survivor, Berg isn’t trying to create a stylistic action movie. He is trying to tell the story of the real situation and how they impacted real people. That said, Berg should be commended for creating some truly tense situations. The cold and subtle presentation of the bombings gives it a sudden and unexpected feeling.

While Berg excels at suspense and realistic violence, unfortunately he falls flat in regards to the script. The dialogue in Patriots Day is jarringly tinny and artificial. When dealing with real people in such a recent story, it is vital to establish an emotional connection with the characters. Audiences need to be able to put themselves into the situation. It is difficult to truly connect to these characters as they come off more like caricatures of real-life people. If you didn’t already know that Bostonites love the Red Sox (and the very specific way to pronounce “Red Sox”) and dislike the New York Yankees, Patriots Day offers this as a way to build our connection to multiple characters. Other characters are built up with their interactions surrounding consuming Dunkin Donuts (going so far as to discuss drinks specifically served at Dunkin Donuts) or listening to Zac Brown Band. Any character below the age of 25 is given the most banal examples of what a real person would say. Any younger cast member who is not central to the plot is given little more to do than play video games or smoke weed. This makes it easy to question the characterizations we are seeing and distances the audience from the story. It hits a false note and breaks the reality that Berg achieves so effortlessly in the more tense moments.

Patriots Day also feels both overlong and rushed. In order to give enough time to truly connect to the many real-life people in the story, the manhunt aspects would need to be limited. In order to truly give weight to the crime drama elements, you need to sacrifice building your characters. Patriots Day tries to achieve both and as a result doesn’t effectively present either side. On top of that, we are given a 10-minute documentary addition at the end of the film about the real-life victims and the police that were a part of the investigation. Although it is great to see these people and makes the story feel even less exploitative, it does jerkingly pull us out of the film’s finale and feels unnecessarily long.

With more refined writing and dialogue, Patriots Day could have been a subtle and suspenseful presentation of a recent real-life tragedy. It could have showed of the real people as well as strength of a city in the response to a terrifying act. As it is, Patriots Day is an occasionally very good film that is brought down hard by the sloppy handling of the human elements. Berg again proves that he can create a great crime film but that he can’t quite make the drama stick.