Cert 15 119mins Stars 3

There’s a muscular performance at the heart of this competent real life drama based on events following 2013’s terrorist bombing of the Boston marathon.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Jeff Bauman, a bystander who lost his legs above the knee and struggles to adjust to life afterwards. 

But for all his earnest agonies, the LA born privately educated 37 year old actor doesn’t convince as the younger working class Bostonian warehouseman.

Mind you,  in a showy role geared to attract awards attention I’m prepared to believe the famously intense thesp would consider removing his legs if it were to improve his Oscar chances.

Tatiana Maslany matches his workrate as Bauman’s girlfriend Erin, who engages in a tug of war for attention with Miranda Richardson’s showy turn as the paraplegic’s mother.

Straightforward and sincere with grim injury detail, it ends on a note of flag waving defiance and a salute to the US lives altered and lost in the long running war on terror.