Bleed for this

Young boxer Vinny Pazienza (Miles Teller) has a lot of talent and an even bigger ego. He also needs that to not give up on his dream of winning the title despite all the failures. And indeed, with hard training, he finally succeeds in getting on the road to success. But no sooner has he won his first title bouts than fate strikes mercilessly: in a serious car accident Vinny breaks his neck. With a lot of luck he will be able to walk again - but he will never be able to get into the ring again. Vinny just doesn't want to accept that. With the help of his trainer Kevin Rooney (Aaron Eckhart), he fights his way back to life, always with one goal in mind: to make the big comeback as a boxer.

Bleed for this tells the true story of one of the most incredible comebacks in American sports history. Director Ben Younger has tried to retell Vinny Pazienza's hard road from his hospital bed back to the ring as authentically as possible. In doing so, he takes a lot of time to first show how the young boxer made it from irrelevance to the top for a brief moment before the car accident seemed to destroy his career forever. Younger, who last appeared in theaters 12 years ago with the Meryl Streep comedy Couch Whisper, has been able to assemble a great ensemble for the film version of the story, led by a convincing Miles Teller and a great Aaron Eckhart.

Teller had already impressively proven in Whiplash how much power and passion he can put into the role of a real fighter. Again, he delivers a very powerful and extremely rousing performance, which also saves the film over some somewhat tough moments. But this is also helped by Aaron Eckhart, who not only shows the courage to be ugly here and performs some wonderfully weird dance moves. The rest of his performance is really absolutely worth watching as well. The two of them, supported by the rest of the very good ensemble, are the absolute highlight of a film that otherwise treads more conventional paths.

Although the story is extremely gripping and inspiring, Younger's production rarely manages to generate any really quite big emotions. The boxing scenes are well realized, and Vinny's tough journey from the hospital bed back to the boxing ring is also moving in its own way. Still, it lacks the emotional core that made, say, Creed so successful. Maybe it's also because there are a bit too many long scenes that only take place at the dining table of the Pazienza family. Despite good actors, there is simply no real tension. So the bottom line is that Bleed for this is a good sportsman drama, but it's rather good middle class than a real cinema heavyweight. Still, if you like boxing movies, this one can be recommended as well. Worth seeing

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp