Desperate for courage

Here’s the defining scene in Stronger: Jeff Bauman returns home from the hospital, both legs blown off above the knee during the Boston Marathon bombing, and sees crowds welcoming him with banners that read, “Boston Strong, Bauman Strong.” Jeff grins and gives everyone two thumbs up, but his eyes show confusion. Meanwhile, his mother preens and gushes about the public attention over her son the great hero. “The whole world’s watching you,” one family member tells him. Another says, “Yeah, you’re like a symbol to a lot of people.”

So goes the main conflict in this inspirational drama based on the real Bauman’s New York Times best-selling book: In one tragic moment, Jeff (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) is elevated from a Costco chicken roaster living with his alcoholic mother to a patriotic hero. Suddenly strangers are congratulating him for not letting the terrorists win.

“True story” biopics tend to downplay character faults, but Stronger reveals its characters’ weakest moments. (The realism includes brief nudity, a sexual situation, lots of foul language, and graphic injury scenes that earn the film an R rating.) Jeff feels less like a hero and more like a deadbeat bachelor who drinks before noon and can’t even roll out of bed without breaking his nose. While the nation worships him as a survivor, Jeff just wants to survive each day, and doesn’t know how.

His on-again-off-again girlfriend Erin (Tatiana Maslany) is the only person who sees the scared, vulnerable, self-pitying Jeff. She’s the reason Jeff showed up at the marathon, and at first she feels responsible for his amputated legs, but she soon becomes the “stronger” in the relationship. Jeff’s story is as much hers—she’s the unsung, unseen hero.

Gyllenhaal’s and Maslany’s moving performances make even the obligatory tear-jerking moments feel genuine. We see Jeff’s cowardice and depression, and we see Erin’s frustration and diminishing naïveté. Stronger, despite its explicit content, convincingly portrays a love that’s flawed and believable.