An alternative view of heroism

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This article was published 21/09/2017 (2401 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After the January release of Peter Berg’s Patriots Day, David Gordon Green’s Stronger is the second movie of 2017 to take on the subject of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and its aftermath.

Berg’s film used a fictional composite stand-in cop character, played by Mark Wahlberg, to fashion the film into a combination of Boston Strong cheerleading and revenge thriller. So while it efficiently scanned the bombing story to highlight unsung heroes and martyrs, the film’s driving force was rage.

Bombing victim Jeff Bauman is seen in the wrap-up of Patriots Day, walking on two new prosthetic legs and greeting his wife, Erin Hurley, at the finish line of the 2016 marathon, drafted into service as a kind of inspirational punctuation.

Green (Pineapple Express) and screenwriter John Pollono offer a more compelling and infinitely more nuanced narrative by focusing on Bauman’s story and steadfastly avoiding throwing the word “hero” around, in the way Bostonians might have done when following Bauman’s recovery.

Bauman (Jake Gyllenhaal) is at the finish line, not to cheer on his girlfriend, Erin (Tatiana Maslany), but to win her back with a supportive gesture after one in a series of breakups.

When the bombs go off, the damage is devastating for Bauman, who is taken to the hospital to have what remains of his legs amputated above the knee. The film allows that life is sometimes black comedy, which is why Bauman’s lunkish friend Big D (Nate Richman) is the inappropriate one to break the news to him once he regains consciousness. (“Your legs, they’re gone, bro.”)

Erin gravitates back into his orbit, driven by guilt, but also a sense of responsibility. Jeff still lives with his mother, Patty (Miranda Richardson, gleefully cast against type and making the most of it). Patty is a loving mother, but caregiving is not her strong suit, unless your notion of caregiving includes getting wickedly drunk.

As he recovers, it seems the people of Boston need Bauman to be their symbol, one man prevailing over the terrorists who attacked their city. But Bauman, quite correctly, doesn’t get how having your legs blown off makes him anything more than a guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. “They’re trying to make me a hero,” he says plaintively.

It’s not that easy, it turns out. Bauman goes along to open a Boston Bruins game, and suffers a PTSD-related anxiety attack afterwards. He threatens to go into a drunken decline but for a couple of life-changing moments, including meeting Carlos Arradondo (Carlos Sanz), the Costa Rican bystander who saved Bauman’s life by lifting him from the wreckage and applying tourniquets to his legs. (Carlos’s reasons for wanting to thank Bauman make for one of the more moving scenes you’ll see in a film this year.)

Green was a wise choice to direct. He has a sure hand with drama, but he knows how to offset the heaviness with moments of levity, mostly supplied through a wonderful supporting cast.

Gyllenhaal does fine work in a difficult role, but he is matched note for note by Maslany, who gingerly takes on Erin’s role as a lover/therapist with all the inherent conflict that entails.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @FreepKing