Whilst waiting near the finish line of the Boston Marathon to cheer on his girlfriend, Jeff Bauman (Jake Gyllenhaal) is caught in the blast of a terrorist bomb and loses both of his legs. The second film this year to depict the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing focuses in on the physical and emotional turmoil of one victim as opposed to Patriots Day’s search for the bombers from multiple points of view. The result is an emotionally powerful film that will likely extract some tears from even the most hard of heart.

Stronger is the sort of film that is both incredibly formulaic and remarkably effective. Ultimately it is hard to sell on the plot alone as this is nothing that you would not have seen before. A man suffers an incredibly traumatic and life changing event, he wallows in self-pity and becomes self-destructive. But with a strong support circle around him he summons the courage to fight on. But, as negative as that summation sounds the performances and the composition of the film left me emotionally shattered, certainly in the opening hour and there is no denying its power. The key reasons for this lay with the performances from Jake Gyllenhaal and Tatiana Maslany (as girlfriend Erin Hurley) and the close camerawork that focuses in on the films protagonists and disorients us in the aftermath scenes.

For me Gyllenhaal is one of the best actors of his generation and this is another amazing turn from him. He plays a man who is flawed and placed on a pedestal that he does not wish to be on and his pain is there for us all to see. Tatiana Maslany matches him blow for blow though and this must be a break out performance for her in film. Their scenes together carry the film and make it what it is.