Stronger (2017)

Jeff Baumann is likeable but unreliable. He suffers a double amputation above the knee as a result of the Boston Marathon bombing. The road to a new life is not any easy one for him or for his nearest and dearest.So this is a true-life story, with Jake Gyllenhaal as Baumann. No surprises, we've seen it all before, right?Wrong. I was surprised at how intensely emotional this film is, and often in ways I would hardly have expected. One of the scenes which was surprisingly moving was when Jeff's manager from Costco arrives at the hospital while Jeff's survival is still uncertain, to be met with a barrage of hostility from Jeff's family, when all he wanted to do was go through the formalities of the insurance cover which Costco provides for Jeff: simple, almost non-essential, but powerfully visceral.This film involved me from start to finish. The events were horrifying, the characters are all deeply flawed but fundamentally decent, and the way the story developed was engaging and moving. It was oftifficult to watch, but ultimately very rewarding.

Nearly 5 years ago this year, tragedy struck a major sporting event. Then came two major books covering what happened which inspired two big movies released within a year of each other. One, "Patriots Day", was from the same director who did a movie about the BP disaster, and the other, "Stronger", was directed by an art house director. While "Patriots Day" is dark and grim, "Stronger" focuses on the lighter side of the event showing more of the relationsship between Jeff Bauman (played by Jake Gylenhall) and his girlfriend Erin (played by Tatiana Maslany of "Orphan Black" fame), who is running in the Marathon when her boyfriend notices a strange man who would become the terrorist that stopped the Marathon and cut his legs, forcing him to recover in a wheelchair and telling what happened to the FBI. While they find the terrorist, Jeff falls in love with Erin, forcing her to become pregnant while she lives apart from Jeff after Jeff attends a Boston Bruins playoff game as the flag bearer. In the end, after Jeff throws the first pitch at the first Red Sox home game since the attack, he marries the girl before his wife gives birth to their son a year after the Red Sox win the world series. After renting this movie, I thought this movie was a bit slow in spots yet the acting was well done and the soundtrack pretty good.

This is one of the movies that really, honestly and without trying too hard will move you every time you watch it and on top of that will stick with you over your life. Tatiana Maslany and Jake Gyllenhaal are revelations and would both have deserved an Oscar nomination in 2018 if not both a Oscar win. It is beyond me how the Acedemy could possibly keep ignoring Gyllenhaal but I doubt they will be able to keep doing that seeing as Gyllenhaal's next movies look extremly promising. Back to this film though, it needs to be experienced is all I want to say, the real moments will blow you away and there is one line Gyllenhaal delivers towards the end that crushed me like almost no other before. It is in the catacombs at a stadium is all I'll say before going out on the field. This is a beautiful film that does not focus on the attack but on humans, real geniuine humans.

Great Movie, story was well told casting was good. The director did a great job of telling the story?