‘Patriots Day’ skillfully shoehorns tragedy into formula
A horrible thing happens, and a few years later a movie comes along to tell the story of it back to us, so that we come away feeling better — still sorry that the horrible thing happened, but with a sense of resolve, a spirit of community and some kind of assurance about the ultimate victory of good over evil.
The disturbing element isn’t so much the commodification of tragedy as it is the shoehorning of tragedy into a familiar and reassuring form.
Remember the VH1 show “Behind the Music,” a documentary series about various pop stars?
No matter who was the subject, it was always the same story: humble origins, early struggle, big success, drug problem, fall from grace, burgeoning comeback.
The goal of such films, though made with the best of intentions, isn’t really to tell the true story of people’s real human experiences.
Though the portrayal of the bombers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, couldn’t be more negative, it’s hard to escape the thought that just that much, being portrayed on screen in a major feature film, is more than they deserve.
The story follows the familiar course of using the opening minutes to establish the various, disparate characters whose lives will intersect because of the tragedy.
[...] they start to make love, and director Peter Berg, in a move of staggering vulgarity, has the camera show their legs at the edge of the bed.
The Tsarnaevs are detestable, and the means by which they were caught — store surveillance cameras and videos — are fascinating.
Kevin Bacon plays the FBI agent in charge, and he cracks the case, albeit with an assist from the fictional Tommy Saunders.
Despite being fictional in a world of real people, Tommy is a very emotional guy, and Mark Wahlberg gives a wholehearted performance.