Review – Patriots Day

Peter Berg, you’ve done it again.  Patriots Day is Berg’s third feature in his trilogy of American tragedy and triumph, following Lone Survivor (2013) and Deepwater Horizon (2016), and it is his most accomplished work of the three and of the director’s career.

This is a harrowing look at the bombings at the Boston Marathon in 2013.  It shows the horrific bombing and the intense manhunt that followed.  The film also looks how the bombing affected the city of Boston as a whole by not just focusing on the cops involved, but also showing us victims and even giving us insight to the terrorists who did it.

Berg has a very unique filmmaking style.  The hand-held, gritty, almost guerrilla style that he uses makes his films visceral and intense.  Luckily for us, Berg takes projects where this style works perfectly, especially here.  When the bombing happens, we feel everything.  We are thrown right into the chaos.  The camera shakes and cuts to different people and different settings, jumbling out brains as if we were there.  The shootout between the terrorists and the police is like that of a great Michael Mann film, a la Heat (1995).  It is a relentless barrage of bullets, explosions, and fear that our heroes are going to shot.  Berg’s style has never been used so perfectly in any of his films.

Though this movie is very, “America!  Fuck yeah!”, Berg shows us a side of the terrorists that wouldn’t usually be shown.  He doesn’t just make them a villain and keep them hidden the whole time.  They are key characters in this film and Berg gives them motivations, and makes us understand them.  We don’t sympathize with them, but we do see why they did what they did and that makes the movie that much more interesting.  Along with other characters in the film, these guys are layered and complex.

In this American trilogy Berg has made, he has casted Mark Wahlberg in each of the films and the two have grown a nice working relationship.  Berg brings out the best in Wahlberg.  He doesn’t make him a typical hero.  He makes him flawed character and as a representation of the audience.  Wahlberg takes us on these journey’s and we couldn’t ask for a better person or character to do so.  This is a Wahlberg we don’t usually see.  He isn’t cool, he isn’t suave, and he isn’t in the greatest shape.  He’s an aging cop with a bum knee who’s walking a beat because he’s on the Boston P.D. shit list.  But, he is a perfect representation of the city of Boston.  Wahlberg, a Boston native, shows the sadness when the tragedy strikes and the determination to find the terrorists.  I loved Wahlberg in this movie and it is one of his best performances.

We also get excellent work from John Goodman as the tough Commissioner Davis.  J.K. Simmons adds a nice comedic touch as the easy going Watertown Sergeant.  And Kevin Bacon continues to be one of our most under appreciated actors and, once again, shines as a the F.B.I. agent trying to do his job, yet under pressure from the media, fellow officers, and the city of Boston.

The only real flaw I can find in this movie is that, and this is more of Berg flaw, is that because of his realistic style, when you see a glossy, Hollywood cast like Mark Wahlberg and Kevin Bacon, it loses some sense of realism.  Maybe casting lesser known actors would make the films feel more like a mockumentary and really horrify us.

That being said, Patriots Day is nearly perfect.  It is Berg’s best film as a director and he continues to show he and Wahlberg are becoming a dynamic team in cinema.  This is a film about overcoming adversity and tragedy and coming together to defeat evil.  This is a great American film.

MY RATING – 4/4

Did you see Patriots Day?  What did you think?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter and Instagram, @kevflix, or on Facebook and YouTube by searching Kevflix.