Movie Review – Patriots Day

How soon is too soon? That’s the question that will be continually swirling around your head as you watch Patriots Day.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Rhys Graeme-Drury

Patriots Day casts Marky Mark as a fictitious average Joe named Tommy Saunders – a disgraced cop who rises to the occasion when tragedy strikes during the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. The film then follows the events as they unfolded in real-life, depicting the citywide manhunt and media storm surrounding the attack.

Patriots Day is the kind of movie where every character swigs Budweiser, plays Call of Duty and barracks for the Red Sox. Each scene is coated with the same thick, sticky layer of saccharine Americana that we’ve come to expect from the likes of director Peter Berg.

Granted, there is a really touching epilogue that attempts to recalibrate the film as a more sensitive docudrama – complete with talking heads from survivors and witnesses – which sends the film out on a high. The message of joining arms and running into danger to help others is really sweet too, but it feels very conflicted with the chest-thumping, flag-waving film that Berg also feels compelled to tell.

If it wasn’t already evident, I’m very torn on what to think of Patriots Day. On the one hand, it’s a heartfelt tribute to the victims and the city of Boston as a whole. Berg, Wahlberg and all involved seem eager to ‘get it right’, so to speak. The filmmaking, editing and cinematography all range from good to genuinely great, and the bombing itself is a visceral scene that plants you in the moment and shakes you to the core. We see it through the eyes of those who were there, making the film a surreal, emotional and sometimes haunting experience.

On the other hand, it’s a fantasy yarn that turns actual, recent tragedy and suffering into glossy, misty-eyed myths. It’s the kind of film that I can imagine Donald Trump sitting down to watch right before signing another round of executive orders banning anyone vaguely foreign from setting foot in ‘the real America’. Maybe that’s unfair; maybe I’m letting politics get in the way of something that is purely for entertainment value.

At the end of the day, nothing can take away from the fact that Wahlberg has now put in two genuinely great performances in the last six months. Unburdened by politics, Deepwater Horizon definitely did it better – Patriots Day is a bit more complicated.

The rest of the cast – JK Simmons, John Goodman, Kevin Bacon and Michelle Monaghan – do what they can with what their given while Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor serve up another memorable score. Sorry Patriots Day; I know your heart is in the right place, but I think we’re all a little burned out on hearing about great America is right now.

Patriots Day is available in Australian cinemas from February 2

Image courtesy of Roadshow Films 

Movie Review – Gone Girl. 4 stars.

It was a very unusual viewing experience to not know which character to trust, or with which to empathise, but this only adds to the twists and turns of this epic psychological thriller.

Based on the best-selling novel of the same title by Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl follows Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) who is accused of murdering his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) when she mysteriously disappears. Directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), this psychological thriller has received a lot of hype prior to its release, and I assure you, it does not disappoint.

The core concept of this film is highly reliant on the quality of the performances from the two lead actors, and at first, I was not entirely convinced by the casting choices. For the duration of the first act, I found both performances to be rather stilted, and I felt uncomfortable watching these two actors struggle to ignite non-existent chemistry. In the fairytale romance scenes that portray how this married couple first met, it was almost as if the actors were trying too hard to create unique characters with quirky personalities. I also did not find either of them to be particularly likeable, but upon a significant turning point at the commencement of the second act, both characters started to grow on me. Additionally, both performances began to dramatically improve at this point in the narrative, and continued to grow stronger as the film progressed, especially Rosamund Pike, who became eerily convincing. It was a very unusual viewing experience to not know which character to trust, or with which to empathise, but this really enhanced the twists and turns of the narrative, and I thoroughly enjoyed this technique.

I have not read the novel, so I am not about to get into a debate that compares the page to the screen, however, I do know that the book is relatively thin, which is surprising considering the vast amount of content jammed into this 145 minute film. Gillian Flynn also wrote the screenplay, which leads me to believe that the adaptation must be fairly true to the original story. The narrative certainly kept me on my toes; it moves at quite a pace, and effortlessly skips back and forth through time. Each scene that is set in the past reveals new and intriguing details, which leads you to question what is occurring in the present, and I found this to be very engaging. My only criticism is a result of personal preference, as I am the type of viewer who likes to feel as though something has been accomplished by committing to view a film from start to finish. Although I found the journey in between to be utterly thrilling, I did not leave the cinema with the level of satisfaction that I would have liked.

For me, the most impressive element of the film is the tone, for which we can all thank David Fincher. Throughout the entirety of the film, even during the most benign scenes, I had this unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach, as if I were constantly waiting for something horrific to happen. Fincher manages to maintain this disconcerting mood for the full length of the film without it ever becoming laboured or monotonous.

Fincher tends to reuse the same crew members on all of his films, including cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth, and composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. The work of the latter is significant in supporting the eerie tone of the film, particularly in the choice to include unnerving mechanical sounds into the score. Cronenweth’s cinematography is very reminiscent of The Social Network with lots of dark, shadowy scenes lit in yellow, muddy tones that tend to make everyone look a little sickly, which of course works perfectly with the whole vibe of the film.

Editors Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter, who is Australian, have also collaborated previously with Fincher, and have won Academy Awards for their work on The Social Network and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Wall is also the genius behind the epic opening credits sequences of HBO’s Game of Thrones. I would not be surprised if these two also find themselves nominated for their work on Gone Girl, as the editing in this film is absolutely outstanding. The dramatic cuts that abruptly end scenes create this fragmented feel, and yet, the editing still allows the film to flow seamlessly between the various time frames without becoming confusing, which sounds extremely contradictory, but somehow it works. There is nothing overtly spectacular about the editing, as in there are no flashy special effects that would rival the graphics in the Game of Thrones introduction, but it’s effectiveness is more in its subtlety.

I would recommend Gone Girl to anyone who appreciates a solid psychological thriller, and as it kept me guessing the whole way through, I am rating it with 4 stars.

Images courtesy of 20th Century Fox