An unlikely WINNER
A family torn apart by the Boston Marathon bombing emerges scarred but united
We’ve already had one film this year about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and I wasn’t really in the mood for another, an uncharitable feeling that I blame squarely on that first film, Peter Berg’s Patriots Day. Yes, it did an effective job of reminding us of the horrors of that April Monday and the loss of life and limbs that resulted but, my goodness, its opportunist timing, jingoistic tone and sheer lack of ambition combined to leave a nasty taste.
Thankfully, David Gordon Green’s Stronger is a more thoughtful and sophisticated film which has the guts to admit that nobody won that day and addresses the subject of human frailty – in many forms – in a distinctly un-Hollywood way. It’s tempting to describe it as a film without heroes, but that wouldn’t be true. We do meet one – late on – but he’s not played by the film’s star, Jake Gyllenhaal. It’s not that sort of film.
Instead, Gyllenhaal plays Jeff Bauman, a nervy, funny, 28-yearold, who spends his days cooking chickens at the local supermarket and his nights and weekends drinking beer and watching the ball game with his Irish-American family and friends. On the day of the marathon, he fatefully parks himself at the finish line to support his on-off girlfriend, Erin (Tatiana Maslany). Then a shadowy figure in a baseball cap passes in front of him, there are two explosions and Jeff’s life is changed forever. Both his legs are amputated above the knee. Or, as his best friend bluntly puts it: ‘Your f ****** legs, they’re gone, bro.’ The key thing, at least cinematically, is that this awful news arrives barely 15 minutes into the film, suggesting that the subject is going to be the aftermath of a disaster rather than the event itself. But, let me warn you, it does take a little while for that to become apparent. If you find yourself losing patience with the combative Bauman family or warming to the quieter characters such as Erin and Jeff’s boss, the good news is you’re well on the way. Using Bauman’s own book as
its starting point, John Pollono’s screenplay slowly establishes two things – that Jeff’s injuries are far more than physical, and that his life was not the only one in his immediate circle changed by the bombers.
So, while he’s almost certainly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, Erin’s having to put up with his mood swings, drinking and self-pity. As for his mother, the chain-smoking Patty (Miranda Richardson), the only thing that will drag her away from a bottle of wine is the thought of more publicity for her son, who has inadvertently become the symbol of the Boston Strong campaign that sprang up after the bombing.
Look out for the hugely telling scene in which a bibulous family pool party is interrupted, not by the expected announcement that Erin is moving in with Jeff, but by the overexcited Patty’s news that: ‘Oprah is coming!’ This is a very American tale rooted in a world of bars and baseball games, but it’s lent a wider appeal by the provocative things it has to say about fame and celebrity, and by two wonderful performances. For while the always meticulously prepared Gyllenhaal is being tipped for an Oscar nomination, even better is an almost unrecognisable Richardson, who is quite brilliant as the deeply unsympathetic Patty. Stronger is worth seeing for her alone.
‘Miranda Richardson is quite brilliant as a deeply unsympathetic Patty’