Stronger tells the story of how Jeff Bauman, a Boston marathon bombing victim who lost both legs, 'stood on his foot' once again. And Jake Gyllenhaal gave one of the strongest performances of his career in this biopic!
As the fictionalized version of the real life person, Jake was introduced to us as a funny, happy-go-lucky man who has a circle of friends and beings in little Boston. He's very persistent about his two-time ex-girlfriend, Erin. You see his striving efforts to get her back, and much of it was cute. As eager as he was, little did we know that the upcoming event would spin the ball up like a tornado! What a shocking explosion it was! Not one, but two! David Gordon made sure the audiences felt as if they were on the spot!
When the news about him losing everything below his knee arrived, it broke hearts! It's a tragically appalling truth to accept. And the filmmakers built the tension to and surrounding the fact greatly. They contained the suspense as long as they could, before actually showing half Jeff. Not even the doctor's face was shown to maintain the seriousness of the situation, by making it seemed like an official announcement of fate coming from the highest, irrefutable authority so to speak.
It was after this moment that you would know Stronger is going to be a love story, aligning with Jeff's personal tale of redeeming himself. Even after everything that transpired, he still asked about Erin's welfare rather than of his own. Touching is an understatement when he told his girlfriend about the sign he handmade for her! Their relationship felt so genuine. At one corner, you feel pitiful for Erin too, played excellently by Tatiana Maslany! For one, she's placed in a very guilty spot for what occurred to Jeff. The scene where she recollected his behavior which led to their breakup was tear-jerking. She sacrifices for him hereon after, as he becomes dependent on her too. But for how long?
Counter to our usual expectations, no further rocks fell on our protagonist. Jeff was able to cause the bombers be caught, keep his job and the best of all, be sung as Boston's hero. In a way, these were all delightful twists. But, was everything really okay? The opposite was true. Physically, Jeff's lifestyle has drastically changed. Through one heck of acting prowess, Jake Gyllenhaal sold us the excruciating pain he's experienced as the character! Try watching the dressing removal scene without being inflicted by the pain onscreen or gasping for breath. His screams, squams and day-to-day hardship just to run his routine prompted us to feel grateful for our everyday mundane lives. Although a prosthetic leg impression has been grafted for him, for some reason, he wasn't completely happy.
This was where we started to look deeper into his emotional state. He's still in shock. He kept refusing subconsciously to recap what has happened to him and how to go forward beyond that point. But, none of his people understood that, barring Erin. The status as a hero as if solved his perils and pain, and his family members got extremely annoying at times. As a result, he began straying purposelessly.
On a filmmaking perspective, the writer and director has attempted to put us in his shoes by drifting the storyline too. But, it was at this point, precisely the second half of the First Half of Act II that the film began to wander around aimlessly just like the protagonist. The story felt as if it had nowhere to go. With no end goal, conflict, tension, thrill, suspense or at the very least, interesting incident, it was a bore. You can't expect to see sequences in a bar over and over again, or dangerous driving as any worth of screen time. Nothing innovative or new. Boring.
If you thought the movie's going to go downhill from here, wait till it reaches Mid-Point, marking the instance of gears up! A gripping, intense verbal battle in car between Erin and Jeff! A child's on the way. Burden on him and her just got heavy out of nowhere. Sense of urgency has kicked in. How can a man who's slacking off from responsibilities be a father to an infant? As she left him and he cried for her return, the scene grew acute second by second! He threw his half-body out of the car, crawled to her doorstep calling for her name! It was at this point he finally faced the pain he has been avoiding up till this while. What we've seen as flashes of trauma prior, is now a full-fledged accident rolling out in front of you. What a horrific misfortune! Bone sticking out from the bloody leg was too real!
Jeff picked himself up, worked hard and went out to the world once again. This time, to pitch, which yielded a truly awe-inspiring finale. He walks for the first time in a long, long time to meet Erin. He could stand on his own fee. Surpassing all odds, he's still here standing adamantly that he needs her. He has proved it time and time again. And they both lived happily ever after.
Michael Brook's score was praiseworthy, so was Miranda Richardson's performance as Jeff's mother. Chuckles here and there provided relief. On the flipside, other than the two leads, nothing's there to care about the rest of the characters. There was no need to tell the obvious that Jeff has moved a lot of people's lives through an extra like Larry; audiences were able to fathom it inherently. The lack of a larger story to queue beside the protagonist's personal tale may promote incompleteness.