Film No. 11 (2017) Patriots Day February 14th.

Film No. 11 (2017) February 14th 1.00 PM Greater Union Cinemas Innaloo.

"We've got multiple explosions down here. We need help. (The words of Tommy Saunders seconds after the two explosions near the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon)

Patriots Day is possibly the best researched, partially fictionalised motion picture based on an actual event, ever produced. The Boston Marathon bombing of 2013, captured so vividly by multiple cameras, remains likely the most followed terrorist event world wide, ever. Director Peter Berg and superstar Mark Wahlberg have successfully pieced together their third film, a thorough re-enactment of this tragic event.

Could it be that Wahlberg, in collaborating with Berg, has found a way to redeem himself from the angry young man tag he was branded with just after being discovered as a talent. These Berg/Wahlberg collaborations do shout out for a united America in a crisis. Love and goodwill to others will deliver them from evil is the message screaming out from the screen.

From the moment the two pressure cooker bombs exploded on that April day, the perpetrators, brothers Dzhokhar and Tamarian Tsarnaev were killed or in custody, respectively, within 120 hours. The community of Boston connected in a way that ensured the terrorists stood little or no chance of anonymity. The film uses a combination of staged and actual footage with such seamless continuity we're enthralled from the outset.

Berg has made a blunt warts and all feature film. The star studded cast stay true to their real life counterparts, never stealing scenes and always paying homage to the real heroes; the people of Boston. Wahlberg, Bacon, Simmons and Goodman are all worth watching for that reason. Hopefully we have entered a new era of film making where the retelling of a momentous event draws less on fiction and more on truth. Patriots Day along with Deepwater Horizon is testament to that possibility. 10GUMS.