Patriots' Day - Review
This review of Patriots' Day is spoiler-free!
When I was a kid, I never really understood the purpose is making films out of traumatic events. Something about bringing up old pain just seemed wrong to me and truthfully it made me a bit sick. Growing up though, in a world filled with events of this kind, I began to understand the purpose of retelling them and exploring what happened. Recreations of the past such as Patriots Day may bring back pain for some of those involved, but it shows just how great we are as a people. When horror strikes us, instead of turning to the darkness and avoiding the world, we look for the light and seek to help. Whether we realize it or not, we care about one another and this is a way to show the world that there are people out there who care. Well, that's enough of a pump up speech from me, I think it's time we look at Patriots' Day!
The story of this film follows multiple different people throughout the days before, during, and after the Boston Bombing. Tommy Saunders is a police sergeant who has just been recently brought back after a prior suspension. He's trying to get back on his feet and live with the injuries he's suffered. Come the time of the Boston Bombing, he's placed at the finish line to watch over the race when the unthinkable happens: two explosions and hundreds of people cry out in terror. It's up to Tommy and those around him to help pick up the pieces and find whoever is responsible. Patriots' Day claims that this story is about a few people, but it really feels like the story focuses on Tommy. I think this was the right choice because it allows a singular focus to be maintained with a few supporting pieces. Overall I enjoyed the way the story was handled, as in a situation like this if handled improperly it could come off very poorly for the casual viewer. Peter Berg though manages to handle this task with strength as he has shown in the past.
Truthfully, there's only one character really worth spending a lot of time focusing on and that is Mark Wahlberg's Tommy Saunders. First let me say this: Tommy isn't a real person, he is meant to represent a large number of police officers during these days. Berg I think made a masterful choice doing this because it helps to illustrate that they worked as one, and they all wanted justice for those in pain. Wahlberg's performance is powerful and packs a painful punch that made me at times feel a large variety of emotions. He's just a normal man who's battling his own issues but refuses to let them stop him when the bombing happens. He's first to jump to help, and honestly, I can't think of a better performance for Wahlberg. Instead of being an action star, I truly believe these are the roles he does his best in. He and Berg have a stellar portfolio and I hope they continue it in the future because they bring the best out of one another.
I don't think it should be much of a question as to what's the intangible of Patriots's Day that I want to talk about. That intangible is the theme and emotional pull. This film makes it blatantly known that the ideal of the movie is recovery and coming together for the greater good. Whether it be the people who rushed to the immediate aide of those injured in the bombings or the mass of police officers on the prowl for those responsible, there's a sense of unity in the city of Boston and the surrounding areas. These people were united by one defining the thing that terrorism can never manage to quell: love. Whether we recognize it or not in daily life, we care about one another and if we see a complete stranger in pain, there's a part of us who wants to help. An event like this brings that natural and raw emotion out of us and urges us to take action. I can't praise Berg enough for this because I was actually concerned as to what the message of this film would be, and while it may be a bit on the nose, it didn't disappoint.
Looking back on Patriots' Day, I was thoroughly pleased with the film, but recognize that at times it felt generic. Deciding to use one main fictional protagonist and making many of the real people side pieces felt rather cheap of Berg and just a means to have Wahlberg take center stage. Berg seemed to want to create a new chapter in this dark time in our history, rather than focus on the real people who mattered. I can't blame him for creating Saunders though, as it helped to focus the story. Overall, I think this film accomplishes what it meant to do: unify people in a common reality. Patriots' Day isn't a joyful movie, it packs a real emotional sucker punch that we don't find in films of this kind. While I won't say it's one of my favorite movies of in recent memory, it has a place in my mind for what it attempts to do: bring closure to a terrible moment.
