Review: Bleed for This

The blessing and curse of any sports drama is its inherent predictability. One knows exactly what one is in for, so it takes a little something extra for a film to distinguish itself from the pack. Boxing dramas arguably have it a bit tougher, what with the twin pillars of Rocky and Raging Bull casting such long shadows over the genre. Bleed For This doesn't exactly feature anything one hasn't already seen before but, compared to Hands of Stone, the other boxing biopic released around the same time, it is a far less strained and more immediate effort.

Bleed For This is essentially two comeback stories for the price of one. When we first meet Vinny Pazienza (Miles Teller), he's furiously riding an exercise bike in a last ditch effort to lose weight before strutting into a media-covered weigh-in in nothing but a cheetah-print thong. It's 1988 and, based on his performance in the ring with Roger Mayweather, he may be past the stage of being a real contender. His trainer and promoter Lou Duva (Ted Levine) seems to think so, advising Vinny to hang up his gloves. Even when Vinny does win, he ends up in the hospital, Lou points out. But Vinny and his father and manager Angelo (a gloriously blustery Ciarán Hinds) are reluctant; Vinny knows he's got more to give. That's exactly the problem, sighs Lou.

Nevertheless, Lou decides to pair up Vinny with Kevin Rooney (a wonderful Aaron Eckhart, practically unrecognisable with the pot belly and receding hairline), himself on the outs after being fired by Mike Tyson's team for being an alcoholic. The first half of the film focuses on their bond as Kevin convinces Vinny to fight at his natural weight, which means jumping up two weight classes. Just when his dedication leads him to win the middleweight championship, Vinny's time on top is cruelly curtailed when he fractures his neck in a head-on car collision. Opting for the halo surgery - an operation involving tightening giant metal screws into the patient's skull in order to secure the metal brace covering his head and chest - Vinny is intent on being able to fight again, even when everyone around him is telling him to let that idea go.

Writer-director Ben Younger, missing in action for a little over a decade after his promising debut Boiler Room, avoids steering the film into maudlin, self-pitying territory but he also doesn't let things become too overly macho. Whilst Vinny's boisterous family isn't as fully fleshed out as the similarly raucous clan in David O'Russell's The Fighter, the actors nevertheless convey the ride or die mentality with such conviction that the characters aren't rendered caricatures. The fight scenes contain the necessary visceral impact, and it's to the credit of Younger that Vinny's final comeback match is as suspenseful as it is.

Yet a film like this lives and dies by its central actor, and Teller proves himself up to the challenge. Teller expertly embodies the character's charisma, tenacity, and sheer willpower. He's even more affecting in Vinny's quieter moments, such as the scene where he observes himself in the mirror, taking in the contraption for a long minute or two before flexing his muscles. More than anything, the greatest fight is within Vinny, whose worst fear is not being able to fight again but rather how easy it is to simply give up.

Bleed For This

Directed by: Ben Younger

Written by: Ben Younger

Starring: Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart, Ciarán Hinds, Ted Levine, Katey Sagal, Amanda Clayton