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Patriot's Day is a festive day in Boston with the big marathon and the Red Sox playing a day game a few blocks from the finish line. My wife and I have gone downtown many times, but we were home watching on this particular day. We each only have a four day work week so we don't work Mondays. At the time, I was doing the Boston route so it was a good thing I had that schedule. I was downtown the next day. That portion of Boylston Street was closed off to traffic, but I was right there looking at the boarded up buildings while Anderson Cooper did his report right in front of my truck. It was surreal. My past truck driving job would often have me in the middle of all the activities dropping off and picking up equipment. There's something about watching a movie and knowing every single street and building, and sure enough there are other Boston movies like Mystic River, The Departed, The Town, and Good Will Hunting that are favorites of mine. I don't think this movie was quite as good as those, but it is comparable, and because of the powerful true story, it was an extraordinary viewing experience for me.
The movie starts out by showing us a number of average people doing average things, not knowing that soon their lives would soon be changed forever. A short scene of a Watertown police officer (a terrific J. K. Simmons) going into Dunkin Donuts brought tears to my eyes because of it's normalcy, and because of what I knew was to come. Maybe the greatest strength of the movie is the realism with how it captures the city, and just for the sake of this review I'm including MIT in Cambridge and the streets of Watertown when I refer to the city. They are all very close anyway as you can walk from the finish line to MIT. Everything in the movie looks and feels like it should. The only thing that was out of place was when an officer calls a couple of other officers "chowdah heads". People in Boston don't actually use that term, so it was probably thrown into the movie to give other folks a taste of the city as how they may think of it. It's a minor complaint but something I noticed.
Probably the biggest local talking point of the movie was if it should even be made. There were a lot of people that thought it was too soon or that it should never happen. It was going to happen at some point, so I believe it was a good thing that local boy and star Mark Wahlberg got involved in the production. There was great care given to ensure that the movie was done tastefully and respectfully. There were also several people involved in the actual event that did not want to be portrayed in the movie. Their feelings were respected. The only fictional characters in the movie were the policeman played by Wahlberg and his wife. Wahlberg played a "composite character", a character meant to represent police officers at different points of the bombing, investigation, and final chase. If you are unfamiliar with the actual story, I don't think it is something that is noticeable. His character is not portrayed as some kind of hero, but rather as an officer who happened to be at the bombing scene, and then followed up with the investigation and pursuit. While I don't think it's a big negative, I would lean towards agreeing with Iroquois who said something to the effect of "too much Wahlberg."
The bombing scene was done with great expertise. It was not at all gratuitous, but it was deeply upsetting. The same goes for the portrayal of the execution of MIT police officer Sean Collier. The carjacking of the young and heroic Chinese man, and the pursuit and firefight through the streets of Watertown were tense and exciting scenes. One of the greatest things to come out of the actual event was to see police officers finally get their due and be treated like the heroes that they are. I watched live with enormous elation and pride as people came out into the streets to give them applause, and this is another thing that came through in the film. I didn't think it was a perfect movie. The performances ranged from adequate to very good. I thought there were a couple of ill timed attempts at humor and a couple of corny lines, although those are things that can be realistic. Overall though, I thought they captured the essence of what happened with great success, even integrating actual photos and surveillance footage. It was a very powerful and moving viewing experience for me, and I was on the edge of my seat for it's duration. The tribute at the end was icing on the cake.
Patriot's Day (2016)
Patriot's Day is a festive day in Boston with the big marathon and the Red Sox playing a day game a few blocks from the finish line. My wife and I have gone downtown many times, but we were home watching on this particular day. We each only have a four day work week so we don't work Mondays. At the time, I was doing the Boston route so it was a good thing I had that schedule. I was downtown the next day. That portion of Boylston Street was closed off to traffic, but I was right there looking at the boarded up buildings while Anderson Cooper did his report right in front of my truck. It was surreal. My past truck driving job would often have me in the middle of all the activities dropping off and picking up equipment. There's something about watching a movie and knowing every single street and building, and sure enough there are other Boston movies like Mystic River, The Departed, The Town, and Good Will Hunting that are favorites of mine. I don't think this movie was quite as good as those, but it is comparable, and because of the powerful true story, it was an extraordinary viewing experience for me.
The movie starts out by showing us a number of average people doing average things, not knowing that soon their lives would soon be changed forever. A short scene of a Watertown police officer (a terrific J. K. Simmons) going into Dunkin Donuts brought tears to my eyes because of it's normalcy, and because of what I knew was to come. Maybe the greatest strength of the movie is the realism with how it captures the city, and just for the sake of this review I'm including MIT in Cambridge and the streets of Watertown when I refer to the city. They are all very close anyway as you can walk from the finish line to MIT. Everything in the movie looks and feels like it should. The only thing that was out of place was when an officer calls a couple of other officers "chowdah heads". People in Boston don't actually use that term, so it was probably thrown into the movie to give other folks a taste of the city as how they may think of it. It's a minor complaint but something I noticed.
Probably the biggest local talking point of the movie was if it should even be made. There were a lot of people that thought it was too soon or that it should never happen. It was going to happen at some point, so I believe it was a good thing that local boy and star Mark Wahlberg got involved in the production. There was great care given to ensure that the movie was done tastefully and respectfully. There were also several people involved in the actual event that did not want to be portrayed in the movie. Their feelings were respected. The only fictional characters in the movie were the policeman played by Wahlberg and his wife. Wahlberg played a "composite character", a character meant to represent police officers at different points of the bombing, investigation, and final chase. If you are unfamiliar with the actual story, I don't think it is something that is noticeable. His character is not portrayed as some kind of hero, but rather as an officer who happened to be at the bombing scene, and then followed up with the investigation and pursuit. While I don't think it's a big negative, I would lean towards agreeing with Iroquois who said something to the effect of "too much Wahlberg."
The bombing scene was done with great expertise. It was not at all gratuitous, but it was deeply upsetting. The same goes for the portrayal of the execution of MIT police officer Sean Collier. The carjacking of the young and heroic Chinese man, and the pursuit and firefight through the streets of Watertown were tense and exciting scenes. One of the greatest things to come out of the actual event was to see police officers finally get their due and be treated like the heroes that they are. I watched live with enormous elation and pride as people came out into the streets to give them applause, and this is another thing that came through in the film. I didn't think it was a perfect movie. The performances ranged from adequate to very good. I thought there were a couple of ill timed attempts at humor and a couple of corny lines, although those are things that can be realistic. Overall though, I thought they captured the essence of what happened with great success, even integrating actual photos and surveillance footage. It was a very powerful and moving viewing experience for me, and I was on the edge of my seat for it's duration. The tribute at the end was icing on the cake.