Bleed for This

Providence, R.I.-raised Vinny "The Pazmanian Devil" Pazienza (now legally named Vinny Paz) has held five belts in his boxing career (40 wins in 50 bouts). That they were in different weight divisions makes the achievement more formidable. That his life and career almost came to an abrupt end makes him fodder for the movies.

Paz (played by Miles Teller) is resurrecting his flailing career when a car wreck sends him to the emergency room and leaves him with a series of terrible options. Having broken two of the vertebrae in his neck and having the injury dangerously close to his spine, the idea of Paz ever walking on his own, much less competing for another belt, seems remote.

Fusing the vertebrae would prevent him from ever competing in the ring, so he demands his skeptical doctor hook him up with a series of rods and screws called a "halo," which looks like something Torquemada used to torture sinners during the Inquisition. The treatment was relatively new when Paz received it, making it seem even riskier than it is now.

Paz's return to the ring is inherently inspiring, so writer-director Ben Younger (Boiler Room) is already off to a good start, but Younger adds some intriguing touches that give the film a feeling of authenticity that makes the Cinderella story seem less sappy.

Younger shortens the timeline of Paz's career and skips his problems with DUIs and other touchy subjects. That said, the boxing scenes and the halo sequences are consistently brutal and raw. While there are some perfunctory pop hits from the '80s and '90s worked in, the quirky score gives viewers a sense of having taken a few punches of their own.

Younger also waits until later in the film to introduce the wreck. This enables viewers to get a feel for why Paz loves the life and why he refuses to give it up. If the crash had come sooner, his attempts to recover wouldn't be as engrossing.

Paz's devout Catholic family seems consistently believable, despite the fact that almost none hails from Providence. Paz's loving but deeply concerned father is played beautifully by Irish actor Ciaran Hinds, who like his peers, slips into the appropriate accent effortlessly.

Teller has a convincing boxer's physique and walks a fine line between courageous and foolish. He comes off as just smart enough to know that doctors might be wrong about a couple of things but naive enough to assume that they're mistaken less often than they really are.

There's an intriguing parallel storyline involving Paz's reluctant but committed trainer Kevin Rooney (Aaron Eckhart). If Paz is struggling with an injury and a potentially fatal case of pride, Kevin is still smarting after being dumped by then-rising star Mike Tyson and from his incorrigible fondness for booze. The two clearly need each other, even if the headstrong men have difficulty acknowledging it.

The film begins with an amusing reminder of how arrogant Paz could be before his accident. In most movies, he'd slowly learn humility through his struggle. For the sake of the film and as a nod to the truth, it's refreshing that Paz doesn't. Merely getting out of the halo successfully is achievement enough. The gambling that got him in trouble later in life shows up even during the rehabilitation scenes, and it's doubtful he would have recovered from the crash if he lacked confidence.

Back in the '90s, observant filmgoers noticed all movie police investigations somehow wind up in strip clubs. At times, Paz's obligatory wild life seems as perfunctory: It's more fun watching him fight than it is seeing him celebrate.

MovieStyle on 11/18/2016