Patriots Day, an absorbing and detail-rich account of the terrorist bombing of the 2013 Boston Marathon and the four-day manhunt that followed, marks the third time in three years that director Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg have collaborated to dramatize recent history. Dropping in a made-up character to witness key events in the investigation, Forrest Gump-style, is a risky move, but one that allows Berg and his co-screenwriters Matt Cook and Joshua Zetumer to avoid potentially more damaging storyscaping elsewhere. Elsewhere, the film offers up generic clashes between local cops and the feds, with John Goodman’s Ed Davis, commissioner of the Boston Police Department, sounding off in favor of swift action. J.K. Simmons is the epitome of old-school cool as Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese of the police department in neighboring Watertown, where Dzhokhar’s attempted escape famously ends in a backyard boat.
– Less than four years after the real-life event, director Peter Berg has brought us Hollywood's version of the Boston Marathon bombing with Patriots Day, centering on a fictional Boston police sergeant (Mark Wahlberg) whose experiences are based on the real ones of several people. Here's what critics are saying: The film can't evoke the same kind of stirring emotion as the real-life footage shown at the end, but it's still "kinetic, well cast, and technically impressive," writes Sheri Linden at the Hollywood Reporter. The "restless camerawork expertly evokes the unspeakable panic and confusion" while "Berg recreates the marathon explosions themselves with full-frontal pandemonium." In other words, it "gets the job done." It's an "absorbing and detail-rich account" that "sticks close to the facts" for the most part and includes scenes that are "appropriately frightening and disorienting," writes Chris Klimek at NPR. "While it's natural to be suspicious of these kinds of feel-good homilies," Berg delivers "a more thoughtful and restrained film than you might've been expecting." But Ty Burr offers a Bostonian's perspective, noting Patriots Day is "telling us what we've seen with our own eyes," only this version is "reshaped for maximum dramatic impact and sold back to us with famous names attached," he writes at the Boston Globe. Sure, "everyone involved with this movie believes they're acting with respect, even when they’re not." But "at best, it's unnecessary. At worst, it's vaguely insulting." Calvin Wilson couldn't disagree more. "Far from being exploitative, Patriots Day honors the Bostonians who responded to terrorism with strength," he writes at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It's "a fast-moving drama with impressive attention to detail" and a "fine ensemble cast" including Melissa Benoist, who's "a revelation" as Tamerlan Tsarnaev's wife.