Bostonians have long felt that Mark Wahlberg was one of their own. The actor often touts his Massachusetts roots, sharing stories of growing up in Boston’s blue-collar Dorchester neighbourhood. He’s returned to the state numerous times to film movies like The Fighter and Ted, and he even started a burger chain here with his brothers.
But when Wahlberg announced his plans to make a movie about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, many locals weren’t happy with their hometown boy.
“So much for those Dorchester roots,” Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Eileen McNamara wrote for WBUR, Boston’s local NPR station. “How does someone who markets himself as ‘a Boston guy’ not see that it is far too soon, that the city is still far too sad for its trauma to be transformed into mass entertainment?”
Others voiced criticism about the film to the Boston Globe and the Associated Press. So when the movie — titled Patriots Day — was finally unveiled to a Boston audience at the historic Wang Theatre on Wednesday night, tensions ran high.
“Being here tonight, showing the movie to people, seeing how people would respond — I knew it would be emotional,” Wahlberg said at a reception immediately following the screening. “But I also knew it would be triumphant.”
Indeed, the naysayers seemed nowhere to be found after the film’s premiere, which welcomed well-known local figures like Sen. Elizabeth Warren and David “Big Papi” Ortiz. The crowd — clutching puffy coats and earmuffs not often seen at Hollywood premieres — rose as members of the Boston Police’s bagpipe band marched down the aisle, playing America the Beautiful before the movie began.
After the movie let out, local news crews stopped ticket-holders on the street, seeking reaction and asking if the production had been made “too soon”. Most walked by the reporters, heading toward Grill 23, a lavish steakhouse a few blocks away.
There were plenty of Hollywood bigwigs at the after-party, including CBS Corp. chief Les Moonves and vice-chairman Shari Redstone. But the real stars of the hour were the marathon survivors, who were clustered together at a booth in the centre of the room greeting a continuous stream of well-wishers. Amputees Patrick Downes and Jessica Kensky, a young couple who had only been married seven months when the bombings occurred, had their service dog with them. (The pup spent most of the evening curled up on a blanket in the corner of the room.)
During their recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the newly-weds agreed to participate in a documentary about the terrorist attacks; that film, Marathon: The Patriots Day Bombing, is airing on HBO. So when director Peter Berg approached them about helping with a fictionalised version of the events, Downes said the couple was initially hesitant.
“Jess and I talked about it a lot,” recalled the 33-year-old. “But we think that there’s a place in the world for both. We knew that the documentary was going to follow our recovery. And we’re really proud of that, because we were very honest. But at the same time, it has a very limited audience — even though it was produced by HBO, which is [a] behemoth. If this [movie] was going to be done and have a massive global audience, we wanted to be a part of it — to do our part in making it respectful and helping them to capture the spirit of all these people.”
Dun “Danny” Meng, whose Mercedes SUV was carjacked by bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, also agreed to speak extensively with Berg. Meng, now 30, had only been in the US for three months when the Tsarnaevs captured him and his car, allegedly planning to drive to New York to unleash further destruction. In Patriots Day, we see how Meng escaped from the car, sprinting to safety as the brothers’ were loading the car with gas.
“Watching the movie for the first time was a little bit hard,” acknowledged Meng, who runs an app, Rush Runner, that delivers Asian cuisine to local residents. “I’m glad I made the right decision [to escape] because it’s very difficult. It could go a lot of ways.”
Even after such a harrowing experience, Meng said he never considered moving back to China.
“I didn’t think about this. My mom thinks about this,” he said with a laugh, noting that he eventually got another Mercedes SUV — in a different colour. “A lot of people here are very, very nice to me, helping me. I am excited to be living here.”
While Meng was besieged by selfie seekers, Wahlberg circulated around the room, greeting survivors with long hugs. By 11.30pm, a team of handlers kept pulling at the actor, trying to get him to leave by reminding him of his numerous press obligations on Thursday.
“I was planning on just coming in for two seconds and saying ‘hi’ to a few people because we have such a busy day tomorrow. But you can’t help it,” he said, hiding out by the door before finally hopping into a black SUV. “I’d rather them allow me to just sit here and reconnect with everybody. I don’t have a house here anymore. I stay in a hotel. But I see the same people. I go to the Boys club. I go to the neighbourhood. I’m in the street. I’m not lecturing at MIT or Harvard. I don’t normally go on that side of the bridge.”
He started to head for the door, but was reminded of one final story he wanted to share about making the movie. A few weeks before production began, he said, he and his family flew into town. His wife wanted to go to a Celtics game, but he was reluctant because he knew he’d get a lot of attention sitting courtside.
“And right away, of course, there we are on the Jumbotron,” he said.
He decided to leave the game early to attempt to avoid any chaos. But a crowd followed behind him, surrounding his car and cheering.
“So I got out of the car, stood on the roof and yelled ‘Boston Strong,’” Wahlberg said. “People went crazy for a good 30, 40 minutes until the police could get us out of there. And that’s when I realised the community wants this — needs this [movie]. It was a reminder of why I wanted to do it. My city made me so proud.”
Don’t miss it
Patriot’s Day releases in the UAE on January 12.
