Stronger (2017)

If I came away with anything from Stronger, it was with a sense of how a phrase (Boston Strong in this case) can be over-used to the point of sounding like a meaningless platitude, which is the reaction from Jeff Bauman (Jake Gyllenhaal) as the phrase keeps being repeated to him.

To be fair, there's a lot more to take away from the film. For a start, losing your legs in an explosion is not a nice thing. The film gives us great detail on how much it is not a nice thing from the initial injury through to the wince-inducing removal of the dressings, to the pain of landing on one's face when trying to reach badly positioned toilet paper.

It also covers the difficulty of taking a shower, having sex, trying to get up stairs in a wheelchair, and coping with the demands of unwanted celebrity.

There are some excellent performances, particularly from Gyllenhaal, Tatiana Maslany and Miranda Richardson. The film itself is an interesting, detailed (possibly over-detailed) look at the effects of suffering a life-changing injury, a commentary on society's unrealistic expectations on victims that it elevates into heroes to try to find triumph within tragedy.

It has a lot to say and is commendable for that, but it didn't quite resonate on an emotional level for me. Amid all the detail, something of the whole seemed to be missing, which is a shame. What I would have loved to have been excellent is merely good enough.