By John Mulderig • Catholic News Service • Posted January 13, 2017

NEW YORK (CNS) — While “Patriots Day” (Lionsgate) is an effective dramatization of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and its violent aftermath, the film is also an unsparing portrayal of those events. Thus it can only be recommended for the sturdiest adult viewers.

Director and co-writer Peter Berg approaches his daunting subject from multiple perspectives, predominantly that of fictional police Sgt. Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg). Stationed at the finish line of the race, held annually on the holiday of the title, Saunders is among the first responders to the chaos unleashed by radicalized Muslim brothers Tamerlan (Themo Melikidze) and Dzhokhar (Alex Wolff) Tsarnaev.

Other strands of the story, scripted by Berg in collaboration with Matt Cook and Joshua Zetumer, involve lead FBI investigator Special Agent Richard DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon), and his local counterpart, Police Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman).

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Among the victims profiled are young husband and wife Patrick Downes (Christopher O’Shea) and Jessica Kensky (Rachel Brosnahan) as well as Chinese-born app designer Dun Meng (Jimmy O. Yang) whom the murderous siblings carjacked and kidnapped. Meng’s courage and quick thinking helped foil the Tsarnaevs’ plans to carry out a further attack in New York’s Times Square.

Berg ratchets up the suspense as authorities scramble to identify and capture the fugitives before they can claim more casualties. And “Patriots Day” is clear about the need to oppose evil with love and decency, an outlook most forcefully expressed through a powerfully delivered monologue from Wahlberg’s Everyman character.

Yet, although the treatment of it never descends to the exploitative or manipulative, the bloody carnage caused by the duo’s series of assaults is not kept off-screen. The grim sights from which Berg refuses to avert his gaze — or ours — are not meant to evoke a visceral or vengeance-hungry response in the audience. They are, rather, an unflinching presentation of reality.

Taken together with the dialogue’s torrent of tension-induced swearing, however, this visual realism makes “Patriots Day” suitable fare for only a few. Still, serious minded grownups will find positive values prevailing amid the many losses.

The film contains disturbing and sometimes gruesome images of terrorist mayhem, considerable gore, drug use, a marital bedroom scene, several uses of profanity and pervasive rough and crude language. The Catholic News Service classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.