Miles Teller and Aaron Eckhart deliver knock-out performances in Ben Younger’s true-story boxing drama, Bleed for This. It’s a powerful tale, and Younger has turned it into a thrilling and highly engaging watch, in large part thanks to the terrific leading duo. But unfortunately it also comes with a small handful of problems.
Teller stars as Vinny ‘Paz’ Pazienza, a lightweight boxing world champion who gets knocked out and is subsequently hospitalised following a title bout. When he’s discharged, he defies expectations and wants to get back into the ring, getting himself a new coach in the form of Kevin Rooney (Eckhart). Both are trying to make a triumphant return to the sport, which is derailed when Vinny is in a near-fatal car crash, seriously injuring his spine. Rather than opt for the surgery, which would guarantee he’d be able to walk again, he opts for a medical device called a Halo, screwing a metal support apparatus directly into his skull, as his one shot of getting back in the ring.
Teller joins the small number of actors who have delivered exceptional performances in and out of the ring in boxing movies. He is utterly electric on the screen, totally convincing with every punch, swing, every painful knock of the apparatus after the crash, and every time mannerism that brings this character to life. He’s as arrogant as you’d expect a sports star like this to be, and even more determined to get back to doing what he loves.
Eckhart, too, totally transforms himself into the slightly washed-up trainer making a final go of it in agreeing to take on Vinny. He and Teller share terrific chemistry, and they both really make this film what it is. Both would be fully deserving of Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor recognition in a few months’ time.
But the film unfortunately falls down in a few places. The biggest issue is the camerawork in the boxing sequences. As much as the boxing itself looks flawless, the camera just doesn’t capture it well enough to really do it justice. Similarly, the scene immediately following the car crash opens with a shaky cam in the woods slightly off from the road, and then ‘stumbles’ upon the crash and those in the car, which only served to pull me out of the film and concentrate on the camerawork, because no one was in the woods at the time.
The other weak link in the film is the relationship between Vinny and his father, Angelo (Ciarán Hinds). There’s a strain between the two that is underdeveloped in the script, and as such it across as a clichéd father-and-son dynamic, however true to life it may be.
But its failures are ultimately significantly outweighed by the outstanding Miles Teller and Aaron Eckhart. The two deliver five-star performances, and it’s just a shame that the rest of the film doesn’t live up to their standard. Bleed for This is a thrilling movie, and a totally engaging watch at its best, but I was hoping for more.
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