Thriller about tragedy handled with sensitivity

MARK Wahlberg has come a long way since his former life as rapper Marky Mark and underwear model for Calvin Klein, but he's still a Boston homeboy at heart. He may be a Hollywood heavyweight these days, calling the shots as producer and action star, but whenever the opportunity to make a film in or about Boston presents itself, Wahlberg often answers the call.

He is both producer and star in Patriots Day, a dramatised version of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. He plays a police detective with an injured knee, limping in pursuit of the bad guys while chaos erupts around him. His character is a composite and heroic enough, but he willingly shares screen time with real-life heroes and the city of Boston itself, which emerged scarred but stronger from the tragedy.

Director Peter Berg, who worked with Wahlberg on two other based-on-a-true-story films (Deepwater Horizon in 2016 and Lone Survivor in 2013), knows how to build dramatic tension and string a convincing action sequence together. Here, he recreates - in rapid-fire docudrama style - the events leading to the bombing and its immediate aftermath, followed by the massive hunt for the perpetrators.