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Boxing biopic Bleed For This proves anemic

BLEED FOR THIS (Ben Younger). 117 minutes. Opens Friday (November 18). See listing. Rating: NN


As played by Miles Teller, Vinny Paz has a cocksure vibe. So does the movie Bleed For This. Paz is a fighter who refuses to accept defeat, his detachment from reality being just what he needs to mount an against-all-odds comeback. The movie, on the other hand, just refuses to accept how played out the boxing genre is. It dives headfirst into clichés and never recovers.

Paz was the Rhode Island boxer who had to relinquish his junior middleweight title in the early 90s after breaking his neck in a car accident. Doctors said he’d never walk again, but we all know that won’t be the case. Paz recovered to claim another title in the ring.

The halo brace he has to sport for six months and some stomach-turning surgical procedures are about the only thing that distinguishes this comeback story from countless other obvious influences, from Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull to David O. Russell’s The Fighter.

Yes, Paz’s story is unique, and you have to admire the insistence in telling it, but Bleed For This can’t help but follow the emotional beats that filmmakers, for better and worse, have stuck to in the past.

As Paz, Teller is slight, both physically and emotionally. He has the moves, grunts and cold stares just right, but the character’s can’t-knock-me-down intensity often feels undermined by the actor’s glib, wisecracker charm.

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