Four stars. Rated R, for graphic violence, frequent profanity and some drug use
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 1.13.17
It seemed too soon.
Mounting a big-screen project
based on a recent real-world tragedy carries the whiff of tawdry, opportunistic
network TV movies, which almost always exploit such events in pursuit of
viewership ratings.
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| As FBI Agent Richard DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon, left) and Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman, right) watch hopefully, veteran policeman Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg) scrutinizes area surveillance footage, trying to anticipate which cameras had the best chance of recording a glimpse of the bombers. |
Not quite four years have passed,
since the Boston Marathon bombing. Transforming that ghastly — albeit,
ultimately, victoriously bonding — crisis into a high-profile mainstream drama,
this quickly, couldn’t help raising eyebrows.
Ah, but I should have trusted
director/co-scripter Peter Berg. He demonstrated appropriate restraint and
respect, while crafting last year’s Deepwater Horizon into a solid suspense drama, and the same is true here. Although he
rather shamelessly yanks our tear ducts in the final few minutes, supplying
on-camera interviews with the actual people depicted in the preceding film, by
that point Berg has earned enough good will to get away with it.
And besides: The interviews are
cathartic, and well deserved in their own right.
Berg and his four co-scripters
wisely designed their film as a straight-ahead police procedural, emphasizing
dogged, ground-level detective work — and, eventually, indispensable public
support — while carefully handling the actual bombings. The result is a tribute
to both the impressive resources brought to bear, in the aftermath, and the
stirring “Boston Strong” solidarity that united the first-responders and
investigative entities.
Events begin on April 14, 2013,
the day before the marathon; onscreen time and location stamps introduce a wide
variety of individuals soon to be linked by circumstance. Some are immediately
recognized by name and/or reputation: Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis
(played here by John Goodman), FBI agent Richard DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon), and
marathon watchers Patrick Downes and Jessica Kensky (Christopher O’Shea and
Rachel Brosnahan).
A few others are likely to remain
a mystery, at first, to all but those who followed every detail of the
unfolding situation, back in 2013: MIT policeman Sean A. Collier (Jake
Picking), and Chinese-American college student Dun Meng (Jimmy O. Yang).
These preliminary sequences are
casual, even light-hearted: Patrick tries to teach his wife Jessica how to
speak with a proper Boston accent; Collier flirts with a couple of university
women, trying to cajole them into joining him at an upcoming concert; Meng
explains the virtues of a newly designed delivery app to a potential investor.
