Stronger

source: Stronger

"Look at this, Boston Strong! You see that Jeff, you're a hero!" "I'm a hero for surviving?" During this exchange Jeff (Gyllenhaal), his uncle (Clarke) and his mother (Richardson) are driving home after a six week stay at the hospital. Jeff's eyes are looking on, puzzled, sullen, and even a little embarrassed that people standing on a highway walkway have made a sign welcoming him back. He doesn't think himself a hero – at this point he has no idea what to think. Stronger is the true-life story of Jeff Bauman, an ordinary Boston native who lost his legs in the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. While recovering from the trauma of the event, Jeff unwittingly becomes a symbol of hope for a city unnerved; a predicament that puts undue strain on Jeff and his relationships with his family and his on-again-off-again girlfriend Erin (Maslany). Wrapped around the familiar story-beats of an earnest but incidental feel-good movie is a narrative that most of the time feels like it's anything but. Director David Gordon Green wisely complicates and subverts the expected narrative by looking up at characters and events through Jeff's unique perspective. In one fell swoop Jeff becomes, in his eyes, a trifling good-news segment, a drain on his family and fuel for Erin's guilty conscience. Everyone, including the man who saved his life (Sanz) labels him a hero. But Jeff is walled up by so many conflicting emotions that trying to confront the actual tragedy is almost insurmountable for him. Thus much of the movie is spent with Jeff adapting to the physical limits of being paraplegic while uncomfortably inhibiting the role of a proud survivor. There's a hard fought lesson by the end. One that makes everything worth a watch but that doesn't make moments of Jeff toiling in the bathroom any less harrowing. In one stressful scene Jeff has what appears to be a panic attack after waving the flag at a Bruins game. Erin stands over him trying desperately to touch and comfort him. He aggressively swats her away. Stronger's heartbreaking moments do take their toll. And while Jeff's chuckle-headed family of Boston brogued misfits provide levity to offset some of the unpleasantness, the film still packs an emotional wallop that I for one was not expecting; at least not to this penetrating depth and rawness. Jake Gyllenhaal; always the underrated actor is master of his domain here. He essentially plays two versions of Jeff – one a likable man-child, the other a fractured soul slowly crawling back from the darkness. Both work so completely and so honestly that when the film dips into the grab-bag of feel-good clichés Gyllenhaal shakes any doubt that we're looking at the real thing. When compared to the opportunistic Patriots Day (2016), Stronger has infinitely more to say about the strength of everyday people and how that strength can flourish through love and support. The collective intuition of David Gordon Green, Jake Gyllenhaal and cinematographer Sean Bobbitt breathes real pathos into what just might be the best recovery story put to film. This isn't a movie about a hero; this is a movie about the hero in all of us.

I have the greatest respect for Gyllenhaal's acting abilities, and in this film he is quite impressive as a handicapped person, after being seriously wounded by the Boston Marathon bomb blast of 2013. In particular, I had never thought of how painful it can be just to remove dressings from your wounds, and Gyllenhaal conveys it in a sound piece of acting. Sadly, he has far too many silences that annoy rather than allow the viewer to understand the nature of his predicaments. Gyllenhaal is potential Oscar material and he might get a nomination here, but he has done better (PRISONERS and NIGHTCRAWLER, for instance). I doubt he will get it on this ticket, where his message, especially his eye message, is not always clear (more through poor direction than incompetent acting). I was greatly impressed with Tatiana Maslany's performance, in a much smaller role, but one that completely comes to life. Miranda Richardson is also very good in a thankless role as the oft-drunk mother. I was not impressed with the direction or the screenplay. It would have been more interesting if more attention were given to Bauman's part in helping to identify the perpetrators of the Boston attack. There is a great deal of waffling and dithering, pointless dialogue, and 30 minutes less would not have hurt the film. Distinctly average bio: 5/10

The subject matter of this is heartbreaking at times and inspiring at other times - it follows a man who lost his legs in the Boston Marathon bombing - the aftermath, his recovery, and the public perception of it and our societal need to have heroes and how this man copes with that. It was interesting in many ways, but for such an intense story, it often lacked intensity and momentum. I also never fully understood the depth of the relationship between the main character and his girlfriend. The feelings and motivation there felt unclear at times.

Jake Gyllenthal has accomplished almost the impossible, to give a performance that will rank among the best ever. He channels the ferocity and pain of the best work by Denzel. His "Fences" work might have been depended on a combination of fine acting and his masterful command of theatrical delivery, but Gillenthal here makes you recall how wonderful it can be when the delivery is raw, pure, and intelligent. There's the fire that Jamie Bell brought to "Billy Elliot", and I can certainly could see and feel the pain, much like Eddie Redmayne showed it in both "The Danish Girl" and "The Theory of Everything". It emanates from the soul of an actor who has connected with his part and reaches sublime levels. "Stronger" has Gyllenthal showing us what his character went through as a result of losing both legs during the Boston Marathon attack. We know we're dealing with a man who has faults but is able to show the fact that he has a tremendous emotional core. He is not afraid to reach to show his passion, with a touch of insecurity, and suddenly, the tragedy makes him grow up when he has to deal with issues that shatter both his body and his spirit. He must climb out of the place he is in to learn how live a completely different life. He now relies in others in ways he could have never imagined. His nerves are overactive, giving him anxiety attacks, bouts of depression which can only sabotage the little progress he makes. His face is a mask of frustration, terror, anger, confusion and so many emotions that arise as his life changes. He is in the middle of public events; something that is affecting him in more negative ways because he's frail and lost. He has the support of a few people, some like his mother, tries hard; yet she drinks and is easily seduced by the spotlight. She praises her son, yet ignores the torments he goes through. Jeff's girlfriend remains at his side, enduring the not so easy task that caring for him entails. They have a connection, but there is much that needs healing. Unless, people face their demons, talk frankly, and go through some type of therapy, the pain will become something uglier, and this is where the performance takes your breath away. His rage and cries of desperation when he should be thankful for a new gift, leaves you speechless. There are many amazing parts to his performance, and the degrees of anger and ache are intense and varied. It's not a simple performance. Here's not a man who just looks devastated. Here's an actor whose body, eyes, voice, and who uses anything he can to bring those moments to life. Gyllenthal is absolutely brilliant in what appears so simple but is so powerful. He's not afraid of quiet moments. His voice work here is among some of the finest on film. We have seen him lose weight, add muscle, take chances few actors do. Here he has reached the finish line, giving us something that will probably never be improved upon by him and many others. Gyllenthal does wonders when he's in the hospital in recovery, in his discovery of how difficult it is to use his home's facilities, how hard it is to tell anyone what he is really feeling. His hands shake,his mouth is frozen as he is unable to cry out how much he is suffering. He doesn't understand what he symbolizes for many because he is now in a place which few of us visit, a hell that has taken over his world and makes him hurt in unspeakable ways. He will make, but the road is long and full of all kinds of obstacles. Here's a performance that needs to be seen, admired, rewarded, and applauded because the actor has done exactly what he needed to do: Show us how complex emotion can be.

A lackluster retail employee and irresponsible boyfriend has the misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Then his family drink, swear, and fight. As per virtually every movie set in working class Boston. Only this one is based on truth, so I guess it is what it is. Are there no more God-fearing blue collar people? Gyllenhaal is great, as usual. So is the unknown Canadian playing his girlfriend. Not much of a plot. Just a poor nobody recovering from misfortune, surrounded by low life people. Enjoy.

"Stronger" the new biopic film about Jeff Bauman and the 2013 Boston marathon bombing is one tale of courage and dealing with pain and sorrow before coming to terms with life thru determination. The film is set from the beginning and deals with the marathon bombing to the struggle and life changing days of one Jeff Bauman(in one of Jake Gyllenhaal's best performances). The city of Boston from the scenes and accents is captured just perfect and the pain and blood wounds seen are felt and seem real like as the hospital stay that involves Jeff and his struggle to get back up with family and friends is highlighted and showcased with such pain and tough determination. This film proves that one's life can be turned upside down with an unexpected event and can change forever. Still with love, courage, and determination it can make one stronger forever.

Let me say this off the bat. I saw this film primarily because of Jake Gyllenhaal and the rave reviews he's gotten in portraying Jeff Bauman, the young man who lost his legs in the '13 Boston Marathon bombing and became a symbol of hope. Not because I think the bombing itself has not gotten enough attention and analysis from all quarters imaginable. The film is less about the day of the bombing than about Bauman's long road back afterward. On paper, this didn't look exceptionally enticing, but the rousing reviews drew me in. A well-received film with an actor of Gyllenhaal's caliber is tough to pass up. There is enough narrative flow and great performances from Gyllenhaal and Tatiana Maslany as his transient girlfriend and Miranda Richardson as his hard-drinking, boisterous mother to make this film worth seeing. And the depiction of the bombing itself is well-executed and flashback scenes to Bauman's ravaged condition in the seconds and minutes immediately following the blast are gritty and powerful. The depiction of the family's insensitivity to Bauman's personal hardship is a worthwhile theme here. A scene in which his friends and family are blithely watching a Red Sox game while he has a painful collapse in the bathroom is one of the film's more genuine moments. Maslany captures the girlfriend wonderfully, though I'm tempted to argue her prominence in the film has been overstated in the reviews. But make no mistake. I've seen this kind of film many, many, many times before. It does not stand out as far as doing anything ground-breaking. It's a simple blue collar tale of struggle and recovery through sheer heart and will power, the kind of story that has been told through the ages. That's what's disingenuous about the reviews. They led me to believe this was something more than conventional. It's as tried and true as they come. Everything from Hollywood's fixation on the feisty Boston persona to the moment of a tempestuous argument between two loved ones to the bar fight with the token idiot who spouts his nonsense. And there is also that moment in the spotlight with one of your favorite sports teams while masking deep personal turmoil. You have it all here in spades. I give David Gordon Green credit in making hay with a formula that has been done before, seemingly since the earliest of days. Recommended for the great performances.

Even though there are some scenes at the end featuring 'inspirational' scenes the film mostly focuses on the recovery of the character where he is never as strong as everyone thinks him to be and he doesn't express anything to most of them either. With strong ensemble cast Stronger manages to be worth a watch even though it has a derivative plot and structure.

Jeff slaves away in the meat department at Costco. Amputated animal limbs are cured under his supervision. He does a passable job, and only leaves a mess every so often as he punches out. His charm fills the gaps in his work ethic, and his co-workers lift his weight out of admiration. Fringing on the side of laziness, Jeff coasts on his ability to win his peers over. The one person immune to his sly likability is Erin. They have been on again, off again several times, and now Jeff is determined to get back on the vessel and stay for good. Erin's hesitation is echoed by her sister's face as Jeff approaching them at the pub. Using Erin's upcoming marathon run as an in, Jeff steals her donation jar and proceeds to go on a fundraising venture throughout the bar. Embarrassed, but also significantly tickled, Erin drives away smirking when he promises to be waiting for her at the finish line. She knows all too well that he never shows up. Patty, Jeff's mother, still makes him breakfast every morning. They are tight to one another. Too tight in Erin's eyes. He holds onto childhood traditions and expectations. Jeff has made a profession out of sliding by, and his family enables an ignorant worldview of tribalism. Boston is a nation state. A brotherhood of macho denial. All things are taken personally, and aid is spat upon. The Bostonian tribe is one of defiance and egomania. When attacked, the community diminishes victims to numbers on a scorecard. The red pinstripes and the golden B's are larger heroes than the blue scrubs and Kevlar overalls. Jeff becomes a symbol of this gross displacement of value, and vomits up the poison. Feeling the hopes of thousands crushes him to the bathroom tile. His attempts at standing come with the baggage of victory. He is beating the enemy by living and growing stronger news reports say, but he has lost. Terrorism won; now a city is forced to rewrite history, and breaking an 86-year drought does not come close to evening the score.