Stronger is different. This is a movie that had a lot of things working against it. First of all, there was already one really good, emotional film about the Boston Marathon bombing earlier this year. I'm sorry to say it, but that's a niche market that gets saturated super fast. It's not that there can only be one. It's that there should only be one every so often. This movie is very Boston - or rather - Ba-stan. Every other word out of someone's mouth is either "Red" or "Sox" and the actors are all putting on think Boston accents which turns some potentials viewers off immediately. It's a movie that is transparently emotional. It makes no secret that it's trying to make you cry, and you can't convince me that Jake Gyllenhaal wasn't thinking "Oscar" when he signed on to star in and produce this. This movie goes for broke in a way that I had expecting critics to pounce on it like it was directed by Micheal Bay and starring Keanu Reeves with a soundtrack by Nickelback and a Guy Fieri cameo. Really, I pre-dismissed it as a well-meaning but not very good film about a tragedy. Then I saw that the Tomato-meter had it at over 90% and I immediately reconsidered. If critics weren't taking an easy swipe at Gyllenhaal* and this film, then maybe I should see it. After all, there are a lot of things working for the movie too. Gyllenhaal might be my favorite working actor right now, or near the top. It's got Tatiana Maslany, who is stupid-good in Orphan Black. It's from director David Gordon Green, who has a very interesting filmography that includes everything from stoner comedies (Pineapple Express) to sweet indies (Prince Avalanche).
*And before you go claiming that Gyllenhaal is some critical darling that people put on blinders for, I'd like to remind you about Demolition - 53%, Accidental Love - 6%, and even Southpaw - 60% and Life 67%, which only got middling reviews.
So, yeah. I liked Stronger. It's the story of Jeff Bauman (Gyllenhaal), who lost his legs from the Boston Marathon bombing. It starts shortly before the bombing; long enough to introduce Jeff as kind of a slacker, with an on-again/off-again girlfriend (Maslany), a tight-knit family, and a deep love of the Red Sox. After the bombing, he must learn how to cope with newfound celebrity as a symbol of "Boston Strong" that he didn't ask for and he has to figure out how to cope with his loss. As is often the case with movie like this, its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness: the fact that its based on a true story. On one hand, the fact that so much in the movie really happened gives a lot of moments a profound impact, and the film gets a lot of those moments right. On the other hand, you can feel when things are reorganized, changed, or exaggerated to make it work as a film. I was pretty forgiving of those aspects, but I can see how other people could have a harder time looking past it. Similarly, sentimentality is one of those things that's highly dependent on how it's received. You can look at something as melodramatic and overacted or you can see it as riveting and honest character work. That's really up to you at least as much as the film. This movie goes for a lot of big moments. There's yelling, crying, and menace that you have to embrace at least a little for it to work. It certainly worked for me. At many points, even as I was completely aware of what the movie was doing, I couldn't help but tear up. It got me on a gut level. It also has that weird thing you run into in biopics where the story seems to move too fast and too slow at the same time. There's a montage that races though weeks of work and also a single night in which everything seems to happen.
I'm mixed on the cast and characters. Gyllenhaal is happy to get as physical as the role requires and then some. It's a bit much at times but super effective more often. There isn't a lot to the Jeff character, which is a problem. Gyllenhaal and Maslany have good chemistry, but it's never all that clear why those two are together. It feels like she's only with him because of the injury way too much of the time. Some of that is intentional, but not at the level I was feeling it. Jeff spends most of the movie in shock or still processing his situation. Jeff/Gyllenhaal disappears at times despite being front and center on camera. He sells the hell out of the shock of it all. I just wish there was a bit of a character too rather than a collection of PTSD tropes. Maslany is great throughout. She sells every scene she's in despite having a similarly thin character. Jeff's large family all blend together, kind of like all of Mark Wahlberg's sisters in The Fighter. They are collectively one loud, chaotic character and I liked that.
Stronger isn't going to be one of my favorite films of the year. It was surprisingly good though. It does a great job of depicting the survivor's side of a tragedy. It earns the emotions it got out of me. The performances are strong even though the writing isn't always there to match. It earns its R-rating in a good way. It's not gratuitous with what it shows. It's honest. You can't fake sincerity and this is a very sincere movie.
One final note: The fact that they found no way to sneak in Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger" is inexcusable.
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
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