TORONTO — As the cast and makers of “Stronger” collectively rose to take a bow after the film’s Toronto International Film Festival premiere, Jake Gyllenhaal realized that Jeff Bauman, whom he plays in the film and who wears prosthetic legs, was still sitting, overwhelmed with emotion.
“Jake was like, ‘Get up!’ ” Bauman said. “And I stood up.”
“As soon as he got up, everyone else stood up,” Gyllenhaal said. “I realized: This movie just showed them everything he went through just for that moment. I’ve never had an experience like that making a movie.”
“Stronger,” directed by David Gordon Green, is the kind of movie that holds as much drama off the screen as on it. The movie chronicles Bauman’s struggles after a bomb explosion tore through his legs while he was waiting by the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon. He was there to greet his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Erin Hurley, who had previously chided him for never “showing up.”
“Stronger,” based on Bauman’s 2014 memoir, is an undoubtedly inspiring story, but maybe not in the way you’d expect. Honest, painful and funny, it avoids the familiar Hollywood beats for a more truthful tale of personal growth. “The big moments of our lives don’t happen in a close-up,” says Gyllenhaal.