anselmdaniel
This review contains spoilers.Patriot's Day stars Mark Wahlberg in an adaptation of the Boston Marathon bombing. The movie follows the fictional police officer Mark Wahlberg portrays as well as the bombers from the start of the Boston Marathon to the ensuing manhunt for the bombers.Patriot's Day is a raw and mostly factual telling of the events of the Boston Marathon bombing. The movie does not hold back in portraying the brutality of the events. The movie does well in grounding itself with the real-life people and showing their interactions with the bombers. The film does a great job portraying the characters from the FBI investigators to the victims of the bombing. It was emotionally strong watching the victims. The actors and actresses have to be praised for their performances. The movie is well-paced even when following multiple perspectives and the movie treats the subject matter delicately.Although some details of the movie are wrong or altered to help the narrative, this does not hurt the movie's message. I highly recommend Patriot's Day. The movie is a respectful adaptation of the story of the Boston Marathon bombing.
Neil Welch
In a mostly true reconstruction of the Boston Marathon bombing and its aftermath, Mark Wahlberg plays a fictitious character/composite policeman.The events portrayed in this film correspond fairly closely with my recollection of media coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings and the subsequent search for, pursuit and apprehension of the perpetrators. I am aware that Mark Wahlberg's character doesn't exist, being a device to enable some sort of narrative continuity to be applied to the a) bombing and b) pursuit elements of the film. Having said that, and much as I like Michelle Monaghan, the fictitious backstory of a fictitious character does not add to the credibility of the movie. Does this justify the excellent scene where Wahlberg returns home to find all his family in his house clamouring for information and failing to take any account of how massively traumatic the day has been for him? I'm not sure.The film is well staged and conveys a strong sense of being there, It is also gripping and entertaining, albeit respectful to the victims. Should films which portray true-life events be entertaining? I think perhaps they should, as long as they don't trivialise what happened to real people, which this film doesn't. An entertaining film conveys important events to a larger audience, which can only be a good thing.Wahlberg is good but, for me, the best scene is Khandi Alexander as a specialist terrorist interrogator, quizzing terrorist wife Katherine Russell (an unrecognisable Melissa Benoist) with a mixture of cosy coercion and clinical coldness.And I was pleased to see that the closing of the film resolved the stories of the people who had been affected, and how they are dealing with what happened to them.
korbel-IMDb
Mark Wahlberg is totally mis-cast in this film. The man cannot act. An unknown would have done a better job.
SnoopyStyle
Various people's lives cross path in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and its following manhunt. It is directed by Peter Berg and starring Boston native Mark Wahlberg.Originally, I feared Mark Wahlberg. He's not the greatest of actors although my bigger fear is that they would make the movie about him. That partly happened. Honestly, I cringed when he started yelling at Kevin Bacon and I rolled my eyes when he showed up to interview the Chinese guy. By placing him in the center of every aspect of the investigation, the movie loses a sense of reality. There is no need for him to be at every aspect of the manhunt. I do love the walk-thru with the security cameras. Otherwise, his role should be cut in half. This shouldn't be a vehicle for Mark.On the other hand, I am overjoyed with the other people's stories. I love the Chinese guy and MIT security guy. This could cut back Wahlberg mugging for the cameras and add work from the other cops. Give me more J.K. Simmons. This movie should not be an one-man story if it purports to show the events in its entirety.
AD
