BOSTON (AP) – For Jessica Kensky, seeing the new Mark Wahlberg movie about the Boston Marathon bombing was deeply personal.
She and her husband, Patrick Downes, both lost their left legs below the knee in the 2013 bombing. Almost two years later, Kensky chose to have her right leg amputated because of excruciating pain caused by severe injuries she suffered in the bombing.
So when it came time to publicly express her feelings about the movie “Patriots Day,” Kensky chose her words carefully.
She said she and her husband were initially reluctant to be involved in the film, but after seeing the movie during a special screening in Boston last week, she believes Wahlberg and director Peter Berg treated the victims and their stories with respect. But she said the question of whether the filmmakers “got it right” was one that’s impossible for her and other survivors to answer.
“It can feel OK, they can feel respected, they can feel proud and happy it was done, but ‘right’ is so hard because what happened to us was just anything but right,” she said.