The latest collaboration between Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg is a moving and compelling homage to a city and its spirit, as well as a gripping procedural

There’s little doubt who the hero of Peter Berg’s retelling of the 2013 Boston marathon bombings is: the city itself. Native Bostonian Mark Wahlberg plays Jimmy Saunders, a police sergeant, who acts as no-nonsense conduit to help cut through the layers of bureaucracy, bullshit and emotion of that day in April 2013 when three people were killed by two homemade bombs.

The first 20 minutes recall the signature docu-drama style of Paul Greengrass, who retold a US terrorist attack with his 9/11 tale United 93. That handheld invasive style is coupled with authentic footage and incredibly accurate re-enactment to piece together the events of the day. It’s also close in feel to Brett Morgen’s 30 for 30 documentary on OJ Simpson’s famous Bronco chase, and, like that film, Berg slowly pieces together the action of the day – a minute’s silence for the Newtown massacre’s victims, the Red Sox’s home game – to give a sense of a calm before the chaos. We see protagonists from the bombing preparing for the race around the city. There’s a couple, a father and son, and Saunders, who has been given the duty of marshalling the finishing line as punishment for allegedly beating up another officer.

Then come the brothers. Tamerlan, the oldest, is presented as a paranoid, bullying zealot who slaps his younger brother around and drives the operation. Dzhokhar at first seems a reluctant participant who worries about his friends getting hurt while eating Cheerios and watching bomb-making videos, before turning into a gung-ho homegrown jihadi. Alex Wolff, who plays Dzhokhar, manages to create a sense of someone who’s disconnected from the world to a terrifying sociopathic level.



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The tension that slowly builds as the inevitable finally happens is brilliantly wrought, with the score – provided by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – proving a swelling drone which creeps up and peaks in all the right places. Even though we’re all aware that two bombs are going to explode, somehow, when they do, it’s still a surprise. From there Berg holds his camera up to the carnage. Limbs are shown strewn across the finish line; legs are almost completely torn from bodies, and the camera which dwells on the body of an eight-year-old victim.

At this point Saunders becomes a de facto translator as the local police and government agencies try – and often fail – to communicate and collaborate. When the FBI, led by Kevin Bacon, need to try and retrace Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s steps, Saunders’s local knowledge is the vital ingredient; when there’s gnashing of teeth about whether or not to release the brothers’ picture to the public, he’s in no doubt that they should do it. He’s a one-man emblem of what Boston stands for and is the emotional centre of the film who signals when to feel angry, sad or reflective.

Berg creates more tension as the brothers go on the run and other larger than life Bostonian law enforcement played by John Goodman and JK Simmons (who steals scenes as a cigar-smoking local police chief) shout and gesticulate in their Bostonian brogue about the best way to find them. When they’re caught the action, scenes manage to be both brilliant choreographed and drenched in the tension that Berg builds.

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It’s a film about the day and its impact on the victims and on the city, but it’s also brazen with its cathartic revenge mission. When the young Chinese entrepreneur who is taken hostage by the brothers runs away from the brothers after they stop for snacks at a gas station, his plea of “Get those motherfuckers!” to the policemen he provides information to, feels like it could come from a Eddie Murphy buddy cop movie from the 80s. Unlike Greengrass’s “ordeal cinema”, it’s clear this is meant to be a positive homage to Boston, its spirit and its residents.



Unlike Greengrass who used real-life participants as actors in United 93, Berg chooses to have the survivors and officers from Boston give their views to finish the film. It’s an obvious move to keep the real-life survivors at the heart of the action and a reminder that all of it really happened.