Patriots Day (15)
A few months ago there was chatter this retelling of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing was in line for Oscar recognition – but not a single nomination followed.
A mistake to rival the shambolic Best Picture winner cock-up at Sunday night’s glittering ceremony? Not quite.
Patriots Day is a powerful piece of work that pays respectful tribute to the victims of the horrific blasts near the finish line of the annual race, but is too flawed to merit greatness status.
The traumatic drama sees the third team-up between director Peter Berg and leading man Mark Wahlberg, with the latter Boston-born star playing fictional cop Tommy Saunders.
Berg’s casting of his new muse is the film’s first mistake; Wahlberg’s passion for his home city and its people shines through, however he feels miscast in such weighty subject matter and occasionally ventures into his Other Guys persona during moments of levity.
The story – penned by Berg and four other collaborators – shoehorns in too much cutesy banter and the terrorists responsible for the atrocity are too ‘boo-hiss’ one-dimensional, although Alex Wolff (Dzhokhar Tsarnaev) does some fine work.
Taking the United 93 approach of following the victims, perpetrators and those caught in the middle doesn’t quite work so well as a result, but characters whose presence you