I like to think of myself as someone with a relatively refined taste in cinema, and I often criticize films that rely on sentiment and emotion to make a statement. However, at the same time, I readily admit that I am essentially a sucker for a good emotional catharsis, granted the film that does the deed has some artistic merit. I’m not entirely above sentimental and inspirational cinema, and I too am human in many ways, and the raw and visceral emotion that comes out of some films do have their effect on me. One such film is Stronger, a film that I was expecting to be good, but I was pleasantly surprised to see it rises above films the preceded it in its subgenre of overemotional biopics to be a wonderfully solid and also deeply emotional film that may not be innovative, but it is still one of the best films of the year, which is a surprise if there ever was one. What Stronger is is a deeply touching, often tear-inducing film that actually cares about its characters – both central and peripheral – and gives it extraordinary subject matter the justice it deserves by being inspirational without resorting to petty emotional orchestrations designed to elicit responses from the audience.

Stronger is based on the story of Jeff Bauman (played by Jake Gyllenhaal in this film), a working-class Boston man who decides he is going to win his girlfriend, Erin (portrayed brilliantly by Tatiana Maslany), back by waiting at the finish line of the Boston Marathon in 2013. Unfortunately, that was the fateful day of the horrific Boston Marathon bombings, and as Jeff was at the frontline at the time of the explosion, he suffered a horrendous injury that resulted in both his legs being amputated. The film tracks Jeff’s journey over the next few months as he recovers and comes to terms with changes – both to his body and to those around him, as he undergoes the monumental road to recovery with the assistance of his mother Patty (Miranda Richardson), as well as his family and friends who drop everything to help Jeff recover, and stand by his side even when his own selfish anger towards his situations threatens to drive those away from him.

I’m not ashamed to say I consider Jake Gyllenhaal as one of the best actors of his generation, with many years of solid and versatile work in a variety of genres. He has given some absolutely astounding performances over the years, and Stronger is just another great performance to add to his already endless list of masterful achievements. On the surface, it may appear that the role of Jeff Bauman is easy for any actor to play, and it seems like performers live for these kinds of roles as it allows them to over-emote and construct their performances out of several moments of false senses of truth. I won’t deny that Gyllenhaal did dial it up all the way with his performance here, but he also did make sure to add nuance and detail to the character, making him less of a tragic victim and more of a genuine fighter, albeit one with flaws. These flaws are what drives the story – it is a film that shows the challenges that come with the main character’s journey to wellness, not only his physical limitations, but also the self-imposed mental limitations. I won’t deny that Jeff Bauman is a heroic and inspirational individual, but if this film has anything to say about his recovery, he was deeply flawed and it shows how his own mentality sometimes held him back and caused far more trouble in his life. Stronger is a film that subverts many tropes of the biopic genre, which I’ll discuss later on. Gyllenhaal is really great in this film – from his goofy adorability at the beginning of this film, to his heartbreaking injury and inspirational road to recovery, he was astonishing in this film and it is one of his stronger performances (that was completely unintentional, but let’s go for it for the sake of it, shall we?)

However, Stronger is a film that belongs, in a very large portion, to the women of this film, particularly Jeff’s mother Patty (Miranda Richardson) and his ex-girlfriend Erin (Tatiana Maslany). This is a film that doesn’t delegate the women of the film to menial supportive roles, and they are shown to be far more complex and developed than traditional archetypal roles for women in these kinds of films tend to be. Miranda Richardson is an absolute force to be reckoned with when she is really giving all her commitment to her role, and her performance in Stronger is a truly powerhouse performance. Her foul-mouthed, alcoholic but good-hearted Patty is sometimes hilarious in her antics, and often heartbreaking in her unwavering devotion to her son. Richardson brings out the best in the character, making her fully-dimensional and a far cry from typical motherly roles in films. I thought her performance was so wonderful in a number of ways, and while she may exist primarily as the comic relief, she ultimately has her own emotional arc that is as heartwrenching to watch as the central story of Jeff’s recovery. A really great performance from an always reliable character actress who is consistently solid regardless of the role she is given.

Moreover, the true emotional core of this film lies in Tatiana Maslany, who subverts traditional conceptions of the “supportive wife/girlfriend” that problematically populates these kinds of films. The guilt and anger residing within Erin are shown in perfect clarity through Maslany’s masterful performance, and she is far more developed as a character than I initially expected. She is strong, willful and able to do one thing that these archetypal supportive wives/girlfriends often fail to do when faced with adversity – she walks away out of her own accord, understanding that love is powerful, but so is having self-respect and staying true to your beliefs. Ultimately there is the obvious reconciliation and happy ending, but that doesn’t mean that Stronger made the character of Erin any less remarkable or sacrificed her willful and independent attitude for the sake of the hackneyed Hollywood ending. Maslany is the definition of a star on the rise, and I honestly believe cinema would benefit greatly by having Tatiana Maslany as a regular participant. If she became a movie star, there would be some fractional sense of justice to our modern world. She is wonderfully talented and Stronger just proves that point. I genuinely wish her the very best and hope that she’ll continue to be offered great and complex roles such as this.

As I’ve said previously, Stronger is a film that genuinely and deeply cares about its female characters, with very little effort to resort to showing these characters as simply being peripheral to the central story. Jeff Bauman undeniably fought hard to recover, but the main message of this film all goes back to the adage of “it takes a village to raise a child” – and we can adapt that to say that it takes a village to help someone who has fallen so low rise above and regain his life. This is all shown through Stronger‘s unwavering dedication to making sure that its female characters are well-formed and deeply thoughtful and complex in construction. These are not characters that exist to fit into a neat, preconceived boxes of archetypal supportive female characters. This film has its goals firmly set on showing Jeff’s story not only from his own perspective but through the emotional arcs of the other characters in his life as well. I feel like Stronger may not have set out to just portray these women in a subversive and unique manner, but it just happened to do so in a remarkable way. It may not be the driving factor of this film, but it was notable enough for me to consider it as this film’s most extraordinary aspect.

I’ve mentioned it ad nauseam, but Stronger is far from being an entirely cliched and ridiculously sappy example of a biopic, even if it does have the structure and appearance of being so, based purely on a surface-level reading of this film. There are several moments in Stronger that would feel out of place in a traditional film of this ilk, as well as factors from lesser biopics that are entirely absent from this film as a whole. I will not deny that this is a film that did make me tear up quite a bit, and it did have the typical inspirational message – yet, it doesn’t need to convince the audience to feel something – the story itself does that. The emotion in this film is genuine – the heartbreaking sadness, the explosive anger, and the joyful happiness – all of it is real and tangible, and it is all due to the powerful performances, the script that is void of any needless cliches and ultimately the fact that it let the story itself do the heavy narrative lifting.

I was truly surprised how much I loved Stronger. It is a deeply resonant and beautifully made film. It doesn’t rely on tragedy to tell the story – in fact, only the first act is devoted to tragedy, and the majority of this film is constructed around showing Jeff’s tenacity in his recovery, with each and every obstacle being shown in all its explicit brutality. This is a film that holds nothing back in showing the gravity of the situation, and while it does leave you feeling a sense of peaceful tranquility due to the almost constructed (but luckily entirely real) sense of closure to this story, it doesn’t prevent you from seeing the harsh reality of this event. More than anything else, I am glad David Gordon Green is finally making good films again. Its been a long time coming, and while he’s made some notable films in the last few years, Stronger is the first film that returns him to the monumental heights of the likes of George Washington and Snow Angels. This is a great film and one that I think will stand as one of the better films of its kind, simply because it was a film that had a powerful story and focused entirely on developing realistic characters around the story rather than constructing false emotion. It is always wonderful to see that happen, which is precisely why Stronger is unequivocally one of the best films of the year.