Movies of this nature usually have a habit of rubbing me the wrong way up front. Why? Because it’s Hollywood profiting off death and tragedy. There’s something to be said differently of this story, though. Director Peter Berg (Entourage, Lions for Lambs) made a story about how the powers of indomitable strength and unity brought the city of Boston together to overcome the horrors associated with terrorism.

For the uninitiated

Patriots Day is the, “account of Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis’s,” played by John Goodman (Roseanne, The Big Lebowski), “actions in the events leading up to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the aftermath, which includes the city-wide manhunt to find the terrorists behind it.” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4572514/?ref_=nv_sr_1)

Now that you’re all caught up

Over all this was an alright movie at the level of story-telling. Its strength lie in its ethos that in crisis there is opportunity. Nearer the denouement Tommy Saunders, played by Mark Wahlberg (Invincible, Ted), was asked if any amount of terrorism is preventable? Wahlberg dishes a Hollywood-style monologue of “some you win, some you lose.” There was also the scene where the 26-year-old Chinese immigrant/entrepreneur Dun “Danny” Meng, played by Jimmy Yang (Silicon Valley), who originally owned the car-jacked SUV and was kidnapped found a means to escape the “distracted” brothers and made a run for it. What was cool was that the resourceful guy kept a GPS tracker on his SUV so it definitely helped Boston’s finest track the SUV a little faster. The filmmakers were quite meticulous in their interviews and consulting with the real-life survivors, first responders, and politicians in the events leading to the marathon bombings and the ensuing arrest of the bombers.

Among the reasons that make this film score lower for me is that it is yet another example of Hollywood icons making even more money off the real-life tragic misfortunes of others. There was also the way the two Islamic brothers who perpetrated the bombings were written came off very weak and unconvincing, specifically the older brother Tamerlan played by Themo Melikidze (Beautiful Something). The exchanges between the two brothers throughout the movie were maddening to watch; this coming from someone who is a younger sibling. Another weak moment in the dialogue was the exchange between Tamerlan and Danny wherein Tamerlan reveals to Danny that their primary motivation for the bombings was to enact some amount of revenge on the US for blaming 9/11 on Muslims, as opposed to it having been an inside job; see documentary Loose Change if you want more information on that idea.  Regardless of the accuracy or inaccuracy of that particular theory I found myself to the point of near-livid at Tamerlan’s lack of logic and humanity. From Tamerlan’s side that’s like saying, “The man; he beat himself up real bad, and then he blames us Muslims. Now, I beat him up to show him there’s a difference!” WTF, mate?!?

I didn’t really find any characters that stood out above the rest in terms of on screen performance. Wahlberg had a moment a little more than midway through where he was talking to his character’s wife, played by Michelle Monaghan (Source Code, Gone Baby Gone), and opens up in catharsis about the horror born from being a first responder in the wake of a terrorist event. He mentioned how seeing the images of legs and limbs separated from their original bodies was permanently etched in his mind. There was a scene closer to the end where real-life couple Patrick Downs, played by Christopher O’Shea (Baby Daddy), and Jessica Kensky, played by Rachel Brosnahan (Manhattan, The Finest Hours), had prosthetic leg replacements and still ran the marathon the following year. Conquering trauma like that takes some serious spirit, and I’m always down to cheer folks on that way!

For those of you whom are interested in stories like this I would wait to get it on Redbox, or at least as inexpensively as you can if you’re that interested.