Patriots Day

Photo: Karen Ballard

The latest joint venture between Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg to follow the lives of real people following a tragic incident. Patriots Day sees them recount the 2013 terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon and the subsequent manhunt.

Obviously with this event being so heavily covered by the media at the time, and thus so fresh in our minds, retelling this story needed to be handled very carefully and respectfully. In order to do this the film focuses on the men and women on the frontline as the events unfold in a documentary-esque style. By employing this docudrama approach it allows the visceral emotions, imagery and contemporaneous news footage to speak for themselves without having the big name stars overplay their roles.

Alex Wolff, who plays bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, deserves applause for firstly taking on such a controversial role but also for his unnerving portrayal which depicts Dzhokhar as your run of the mill university stoner rather than a crazed jihadist.

Whilst the ending sequence, which inserts interviews from the real victims and officials, fits in with the film stylistically, it didn’t quite feel like a smooth addition but rather a cheap tacked-on element.

This is a harrowing film to watch as you will feel immersed in the events, but it is one certainly worth seeing for the sense of community and love alone.

★★★1/2