Major movie makers have this annoying habit of trying to turn every success story into wave or genre. If something turns into notable success you can bet your sweet ass that they will try to copy that as long as they can – many years, usually. That's how I've turned away from superhero movies and computer animated features, for example. Even if I loved something initially, I just can't bear to watch the same blueprint again and again and again for 15 or even 30 years. (Then again, there are examples of waves/genres that I still like despite having seen enough of them, raunchy mainstream comedies for example
) Stronger" belongs to this new wave of creating partly fictional accounts of recent real events which garnered a lot of mass media attention and had an impact on the social conscious of the U.S. It's about Boston marathon bombing in April 2013 and what happened to this one guy (Jake Gyllenhaal) who lost his legs in explosion. The focus is on his family, especially the relations with on-again- off-again girlfriend (Tatiana Maslany). It's actually the second movie about the sad event, following Patriots Day" released in November 2016 – two months later in Estonian cinemas. Luckily for variety's sake, the two are as different as one could hope
well, excluding the obligatory patriotic/uplifting finale, of course. The former falls into action/thriller/competence porn category and centers on the fervent terrorist hunt after the event. Stronger" shows that the worst actually comes after the explosion, when survivors have to pick themselves up and continue with their lives. It eschews any action-based approach and ventures boldly into dark relationship drama / character study territory which is great because the leading man Jake Gyllenhaal is good for this type of thing. Stronger" is promoted as an inspirational movie which doesn't come as a surprise considering the subject of the story and it's importance in modern American history. But its approach to what may be considered as inspirational is refreshingly different from expectations. The story concentrates on how the main character was something of a big baby living under mother's shadow to begin with, and the situ did not turn for the better after the personal tragedy. The family is bunch of (lower) working-class nobodies also, and the makers deserve credit for having been able to build suspense based on just watching their regular life, with drinking, arguing, cumulating stress and all. The girlfriend is the only other major character, and if you wish for more strong female figures in modern movies, you are in for a real treat. Erin is written an ordinary woman by any means but Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black") plays her into something great and memorable, which compensates well his wounded boyfriend's dark brooding. It's a great performance and one of the things you will probably remember long from this movie. As anticipated, Gyllenhaal's performance is just as good or even better. It's suitable territory for this versatile young actor who never fears to step in the dark side. The moodiness and brooding energy he brings to the role largely defines the whole movie, and how much you like the whole movie probably depends on how well you are able to emphatize with his character and its obvious weakneses and shortcomings. Oscar nominations are a real possibility, especially both for Gyllenhaal and Maslany. I could also see it happening for David Gordon Green the director and John Pollono for adapted screenplay (the story is based on a book written about real events, as said above). If they get lucky, Stronger" will also snag Oscar noms for best movie, and a number of more technical catgories, including cinematography and make-up. The almost shockingly unattractive and ordinary looks of the main character and his family, is really a thing to savor here. Not to mention Gyllenhaal looking deliciously horrible as a victim, wounds and leg stumps and all. It's safe to assume that most everybody was probably expecting certain amount of glamour from this 'uplifting' movie. After all this long text, I have reached the negative parts which may explain the rather surprisingly low score of 6. I have to say that Stronger" bears the usual weaknesses of director David Gordon Green's serious" movies (you probably know better his comedies such as Pineapple Express"). Green is adept enough at creating atmosphere and intriguing start
but there's always some noticeable limpness to his brand of storytelling which makes losing interest before the end a very real possibility. It's true that Stronger" has much more dramatic punch than Green's previous known dramas such as Joe", Manglehorn", or Prince Avalanche", but it still manages to lose much of it somewhere during the final chapter. The story is just too long, getting more meandering and self- indulgent toward the end. So
Stronger" is pretty good for the most part, and certainly deserves praise for daring to be different and doing it well. It's more difficult to predict much box office success because mainstream crowd would find it too uneventful and, probably, depressing. Just the same as Green's other serious movies mentioned above.
Review of Stronger
