David Gordon Greens new film Stronger shows a man’s life before and after the catastrophic event of the Boston Marathon Bombings of 2013. Much like Peter Bergs Deepwater Horizon and Patriots Day, this film presents the tragedy not too soon after the real event, forcing viewers to relive these life changing events, this allows real emotion and feelings for the viewer, and is filmed, written and acted very well.
Jake Gyllenhaal takes on the role of Jeff Baumann, a wounded survivor of the Boston marathon bombings, who lost both his legs. Gyllenhaal’s effortless performance is one to remember, much like his emotional performance in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, Gyllenhaal takes on this role with poise and precision. Jeff Baumann is a flawed man, with failed relationships, an addiction to alcohol and self-medication issues, but with a loving and complicated family. The humour in the film therefore comes from Jeff’s family, Green allows the viewers to relax and hopefully see aspects of their own families in this humour. Jeff’s on/off girlfriend Erin, played by Tatiana Maslany, and she is almost used as a tool for Jeff’s redemption and a target for his recovery. Despite the trailers for this film presenting it as a romance, this film is more of a redemption film as the romance is used for the redemption of a character.
The issue that the loving character of Erin has with on/off boyfriend Jeff is that he never shows up, so to redeem himself Jeff goes to the finish line of the Boston Marathon to see Erin finish the race, and if you know anything about the bombings of 2013, you will know the bombs are set off at the finish line. From this point on, Jeff’s life will change forever. Characters like Jeff’s mum, Patty, gets carried away with the fame her son receives and pushes him too far which then fires up a time honoured argument between the girlfriend and the mother in law, who saw that one coming! The way Green has positioned these characters is excellent, as a girlfriend Erin is stuck with how to treat her incompetent, but injured, boyfriend, she holds her temper through the whole film, but she has to let go at some point and explain she can’t keep being the easy going girlfriend and accepting the way Jeff treats her in his frustrated moments. Tragedy reveals the good and the bad in people and Green has shown this throughout the film in a very clever way.
This film stops itself taking a political stand by avoiding any in depth information about the attack, however we do get to see the utter euphoria when Jeff’s family are informed that one of the suspects for the bombing has been killed. The gritty horror of the accident is barely shown and when it is shown its shown through Jeff’s flashbacks of the day, the film is way too busy with the emotion and the redemption of the characters to show the gore of the accident. The film lingers in the right moments and is willing to do this without showing the dismissing pain.
Green allows the film to be a genuine true story and focusses on themes like strength, perseverance and failure. Instead of a generic true story film, what we get is two incredible performances from two actors that have shown their talents before in Nightcrawler (Gyllenhaal) and Orphan Black (Maslany), these two actors help define this new generation of acting in film and TV, if you think this is a dramatic statement then you clearly haven’t watched Nightcrawler or Orphan Black.
The second half of the film has some amazing scenes all thanks to Gyllenhaal and Maslany, Gyllenhaal’s interpretation of PTSD is refreshing compared to other films portrayal of the mental illness but in my opinion the most harrowing part of the film is at the beginning when Jeff wakes up in the hospital, his confusion, the worry and the endless waiting for his family, another horrifying part of the film is when the doctors take his bandages off, in the frame there is Gyllenhaal and Maslany and in-between their stare is the painful bandage removal, to be able to see the pain and horror on the couples faces and the bandage removal, allows us to recognise the hell these two people will now go through, and the pain they will go through in their everyday lives.
Stronger could have been cheesy and overly sappy, instead it turned out to be something that is very impactful and heart-breaking to watch. Gyllenhaal acts with his eyes in this film, if the film was purely just a shot of Gyllenhaal’s eyes, Jeff’s story would still be told. Green has made a chillingly intimate true story come to life and has created a great script which has allowed Maslany and Gyllenhaal to throw Oscar worthy performances at this film.
Film Reviews by Chloe 