Having lionized American Navy SEALS in Lone Survivor and American working men in Deepwater Horizon, director Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg turn the spotlight on American police officers, taking the Boston Marathon bombing and the massive manhunt that followed as their occasion. It’s a gutsy move, what with that case’s suppression of Miranda rights, its request for citizens to “shelter in place” while police combed the region for the Tsarnaev brothers, etc. But the film seems comfortable with all that, and also with removing the pesky question of motive from its prime movers: it’s enough that they’re bad guys who did a very bad thing and must be brought to justice. That approach might have worked in a super-sized police procedural (and it is super-sized, starting with the recreation of the crime scene inside an enormous warehouse), but Berg has something more in mind. Something that includes an out-of-nowhere speech from Wahlberg about fighting the devil with love, because “it’s the one weapon he can’t touch.” That also includes testimonials from the real-life participants about being “ambassadors for peace” instead of victims of violence. That takes care to cast a wide net over a broad range of characters in its attempt to capture the bombing’s enormous impact. Given all that, it’s a shame that such a key dramatic element slipped through. These days, even Bond villains get a backstory. (2016) — Matthew Lickona
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