Jake Gyllenhaal (Life, Everest) continues to take on roles that, seemingly, are each more challenging than his previous. In terms of how Academy Awards, I’m not sure if there is another actor under 50 years of age who has been snubbed as frequently as Gyllenhaal. To date, his only nomination is for 2005’s Brokeback Mountain. However, I truly feel that he has been the odd man out with several other roles, most notably in Southpaw and, particularly, Nightcrawler. While I would put his performance in David Gordon Green’s (All the Real Girls, Undertow) Stronger as one of his top six performances of all-time, I’m not sure it’s in his top three or four. While he was absolutely terrific, this movie did not captivate me in the same way that movies like Brokeback Mountain, Nightcrawler, Southpaw, Nocturnal Animals, Life, Love and Other Drugs, or Brothers did. But it should have. This was based on a true story. It had the sentimentality about an average person overcoming odds and becoming a symbol for patriotism all wrapped into one. And while this movie was very good, it wasn’t even Gyllenhaal’s best performance about a character overcoming adversity. That belongs to Southpaw. But just because the movie wasn’t amazing doesn’t mean that it was not very good. It was.
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