Vinny "Pazmanian Devil" Pazienza is a troublesome character to frame as a hero. He's been through some disconcerting things in his private life, such as assault and allegations of domestic abuse. "Bleed for This" portrays this aspect of Vinny's life as a fun, good ol' boy routine of fun romps to the strip club and passive gambling, with his beautiful girlfriend in tow. When she gives up on him halfway through the film, it's not because of his abusive behavior - but rather, because she doesn't love him enough to deal with his neck brace device and the fact that it's restricting their love life. The movie effectively portrays her as the bad person.
It is Hollywood, so of course there will be historical inaccuracies. But "Bleed for This" desperately wants to be the next "Raging Bull," yet it doesn't have the conviction or the guts to show the demons of Paz the way the latter film did for Jake LaMotta. You can't try to turn a man of questionable moral fiber into Rocky Balboa and then also try to posit your film as a hard-hitting true story when omitting important facts.
Miles Teller has received waves of bad press in the last couple years. He was great in "Whiplash," but it seemed a bit of an in the right place at the right time casting decision. In most of his other films he has been smug and detached to a disadvantage. Ostensibly, this should work in "Bleed for This," highlighting Paz's smarmy charm, but Teller just doesn't have the acting or the physical chops to really drive the performance home. The movie doesn't help this by frequently showing footage of the real Paz (e.g. at a late night TV show appearance), who was short, stocky, and menacing in stature. Teller, with his peach fuzz mustache and lanky build, never really comes across as doing anything more than posturing. Even for the film's physical transformation scenes, he's lacking - there's a before-and-after drawn during Paz's rehabilitation, not to mention a scene that highlights the fact that he has jumped up two entire weight classes... and yet Teller, often with his shirt off, consistently looks exactly the same, and never looks any more or less out of shape or any larger or smaller.
Aaron Eckhart, shaving his head back and growing a paunch, is OK but not given much more to work with than the tired cliché of the boxing trainer. You know the character. Forest Whitaker just played him in Southpaw a couple years ago. Eckhart, like everyone else involved in the film, seems convinced that he's in an awards-worthy role, but frankly the writing is never up to par, which makes his performance seem a little overzealous, like he's trying a little too hard to solidify his Oscar chances.
The best aspect of the film is its direction, by Ben Younger. The problem is that the script lets him down - after an interesting first 45 minutes which takes its time setting up the characters, the pivotal car accident happens... and the movie kind of blows past Paz's recovery. One minute doctors are telling him he might never even walk again, then he begins training...and suddenly he's back in the boxing ring again. One gets the impression that there was probably a lot of content in the middle portion of the film that was left on the cutting room floor, possibly in an effort by the studio to bring a 2.5 hour film down to just under 2 hours. It feels rushed and sloppy.
Overall this is a decent, sporadically interesting one-time viewing, but some of that interest derives from the miscalculation by so many involved (both behind the camera and in front of it). From the miscast lead role to the clunky screenplay to the questionable decision to turn Vinny into a hero figure, the movie has too much working against it to even consider itself in the same league as the great boxing movies it so desperately wants to emulate.
It is Hollywood, so of course there will be historical inaccuracies. But "Bleed for This" desperately wants to be the next "Raging Bull," yet it doesn't have the conviction or the guts to show the demons of Paz the way the latter film did for Jake LaMotta. You can't try to turn a man of questionable moral fiber into Rocky Balboa and then also try to posit your film as a hard-hitting true story when omitting important facts.
Miles Teller has received waves of bad press in the last couple years. He was great in "Whiplash," but it seemed a bit of an in the right place at the right time casting decision. In most of his other films he has been smug and detached to a disadvantage. Ostensibly, this should work in "Bleed for This," highlighting Paz's smarmy charm, but Teller just doesn't have the acting or the physical chops to really drive the performance home. The movie doesn't help this by frequently showing footage of the real Paz (e.g. at a late night TV show appearance), who was short, stocky, and menacing in stature. Teller, with his peach fuzz mustache and lanky build, never really comes across as doing anything more than posturing. Even for the film's physical transformation scenes, he's lacking - there's a before-and-after drawn during Paz's rehabilitation, not to mention a scene that highlights the fact that he has jumped up two entire weight classes... and yet Teller, often with his shirt off, consistently looks exactly the same, and never looks any more or less out of shape or any larger or smaller.
Aaron Eckhart, shaving his head back and growing a paunch, is OK but not given much more to work with than the tired cliché of the boxing trainer. You know the character. Forest Whitaker just played him in Southpaw a couple years ago. Eckhart, like everyone else involved in the film, seems convinced that he's in an awards-worthy role, but frankly the writing is never up to par, which makes his performance seem a little overzealous, like he's trying a little too hard to solidify his Oscar chances.
The best aspect of the film is its direction, by Ben Younger. The problem is that the script lets him down - after an interesting first 45 minutes which takes its time setting up the characters, the pivotal car accident happens... and the movie kind of blows past Paz's recovery. One minute doctors are telling him he might never even walk again, then he begins training...and suddenly he's back in the boxing ring again. One gets the impression that there was probably a lot of content in the middle portion of the film that was left on the cutting room floor, possibly in an effort by the studio to bring a 2.5 hour film down to just under 2 hours. It feels rushed and sloppy.
Overall this is a decent, sporadically interesting one-time viewing, but some of that interest derives from the miscalculation by so many involved (both behind the camera and in front of it). From the miscast lead role to the clunky screenplay to the questionable decision to turn Vinny into a hero figure, the movie has too much working against it to even consider itself in the same league as the great boxing movies it so desperately wants to emulate.