Alternative facts in Wahlberg movies

It’s not a column about politics. Really.

I couldn’t help thinking about the infamous phrase “alternative facts” while watching “Patriot’s Day,” the dramatization of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing starring Mark Wahlberg. To streamline the details of the terrorist attack and its fallout into a two-hour theatrical narrative, director/co-writer Peter Berg had to stretch several fabrics of truth.

This isn’t anything new in Hollywood. Just a couple years ago, Ben Affleck goosed a bunch of action-thriller tropes into “Argo” and walked away with an Academy Award for Best Picture. And let’s not even get into the nonsense in “A Beautiful Mind,” another celebrated Best Picture winner about a “real life” person.

“Patriot’s Day” does something a bit more unique. The main character played by Wahlberg isn’t a real person. He’s a composite character of Boston police officers involved in separate incidents. In the film, Wahlberg plays Sgt. Tommy Saunders, who is assigned to the finish line at the marathon and witnesses the first bombing. His character is then instrumental in the manhunt for the two suspects, and is also present for their later confrontations with police.

Actors such as Kevin Bacon, John Goodman and J.K. Simmons play real-life people in the movie, and their storylines follow the history books a bit better. But Wahlberg is front and center for much of “Patriot’s Day.” He’s got a knee problem, likes to sass his superiors, and his wife (Michelle Monaghan) hangs around the movie to provide some vague details of Saunders’ domestic life.

I understand why Berg chose this route. He wanted a character that could be present for every major event in the story, and he didn’t want that character to be a terrorist. Oddly enough, the movie spends quite a bit of time with the bombers too, but the scenes between the history don’t provide much narrative purpose. What’s the point of watching the bombers watch TV coverage of the bombing? Are we supposed to feel their unease and desperation? To me, it never registered.

Saunders is designed to be a catchall representation of Boston’s finest. His actions represent the heroism of every police officer who worked tirelessly to help the injured on that day and to capture those responsible for the carnage. That message comes across better when the movie follows the characters based on real people, like Watertown Police Sgt. Jeffrey Pugliese (Simmons). In far less screen time, Simmons provides a better sense of place, person and dedication to service.

When the movie keeps returning to Wahlberg, “Patriot’s Day” loses its commitment to reality. Wahlberg is playing the same cop here as he’s played in other movies, and his late-movie monologuing reeks of vanity. It feels like “Mark Wahlberg’s Patriot’s Day,” where the only thing more important than honoring heroes and victims is making Marky Mark look cool as an action star.

I generally like Berg as a director, including his previous efforts with Wahlberg. “Lone Survivor,” while brutal and difficult to watch, still had a sense of authenticity that served to honor its real-world inspiration.

“Deepwater Horizon,” released just a couple months prior to “Patriot’s Day,” is also much more successful in turning facts into a compelling narrative. Wahlberg plays a real guy at the center of the 2010 oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and even the most spectacular, seemingly unbelievable action beats in the film are based on the man’s actual experiences. Sure, the movie composites a juicy villain for John Malkovich to chew on, but he isn’t a central component to the primary dramatic arc.

“Patriot’s Day” has also drawn sharp criticism from the Boston community — the grumblings of “shameless cash grab” and “too soon” populate many corners of the internet. The Wahlberg problem only amplifies those arguments, though I can’t dismiss Berg’s mostly compassionate point of view. The movie does ultimately honor the victims and heroes in Boston, sometimes despite its own story choices.

I can see many walking out of “Patriot’s Day” who won’t see an issue with Wahlberg’s centrality. After all, his character isn’t exactly a lie. It’s the movie version of an alternative fact, where individual viewers will need to decide how much of the truth matters to the experience.

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Tyler Wilson can be reached at [email protected].