Stronger

15

Most of us can go about our business, on a day to day basis, without any major disruption. And no, going to your favourite coffee shop and discovering that they have run out of caramel syrup shots does not count as being all that disruptive.

Sometimes though, we can simply find ourselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Which is exactly what happened in real life to Jeff Bauman in Boston in 2013.

boom reviews Stronger
I hate sports.

There’s a reason why Jeff (Jake Gyllenhaal) is in and out of his relationship with his girlfriend Erin (Tatiana Maslany); although amiable enough, he struggles to commit to the simplest things, like turning up somewhere on time, and his flakiness is wearing thin with Erin.

In an attempt to prove to her that he can be vaguely responsible and supportive, he tells her that he will wait for her at the finishing line of the Boston marathon, in which she’s competing, holding a big banner of support. True to his word, he does indeed follow through on his promise.

Little did Jeff know that he would be standing next to a bag with a bomb in it, which detonates next to him. With the lower part of his body taking the full brunt of the explosion, Jeff has to have both legs from the knee down amputated.

As if things with Erin weren’t turbulent enough, Jeff now has to negotiate their relationship coping with his disability. And if things weren’t tough enough, Jeff also finds himself still living at home with his ma (Miranda Richardson) which isn’t helping matters either.

boom reviews Stronger
That's it Jake, keep on doing it and the Oscar is in the bag!

As an actor, it’s these kinds of roles you truly relish. Not only are they based on real life events, but the main protagonist has to battle adversity against all the odds; otherwise known as a double whammy and a no brainer, particularly for someone with the fine acting calibre of Gyllenhaal.

And yet with all these positives, the film still manages to miss the mark. Director David Gordon Green, who has straddled both film (Pineapple Express, The Sitter and the excellent Joe) and TV (Eastbound & Down and Vice Principals) with wildly varying degrees of success, loses focus throughout this effort.

Although concentrating on the character’s rehabilitation may be a tad clichéd, it serves its purpose well in this scenario. Sadly Green devotes too much of the story to Bauman being paraded around sporting events in the Boston area as some kind of mascot. Once is OK, but twice is just overkill. We get it, Bostonians like their sports, move on.

Where it does work however, is in the relationships department; not only with his on-going dealings with his long-suffering girlfriend, but with his large, boisterous family in general, and his mother in particular. It’s difficult to see who would think that our very own Miranda Richardson would make the ideal Bostonian mother, but as expected, she pulls it off in an outrageous fashion.

Gyllenhaal delivers yet another sterling performance, but the film as a whole is let down by one too many weak points, making it feel far more feeble than it should have been, considering the admirable source material.

we give this three out of five