What Doesn’t Kill You, 2008.
Directed by Brian Goodman.
Starring Ethan Hawke, Mark Ruffalo, Amanda Peet, Will Lyman, Brian Goodman and Donnie Wahlberg.
SYNOPSIS:
Two childhood friends from South Boston turn to crime as a way to get by, ultimately causing a strain in their personal lives and their friendship.
What Doesn’t Kill You is the personal story of writer and director Brian Goodman – detailing the events of his early life when he was involved in the Irish gangs of Boston. Although released in a limited number of screens in 2008, this film is a relative unknown due to the fact that its original distributor, Yari Film Group, folded due to financial pressures – the reason it’s taken over five years to arrive on DVD.
If you’re not really sure what this film may really be about, think of the Ben Affleck picture, The Town. Now, remove any glamorous sheen or levels of cool and you have What Doesn’t Kill You. This film is the perfect partner to The Town as it takes similar themes in a similar environment but only shows you the bleak and low-key version of events and doesn’t glamorise any level of criminality. This is due to the director’s documented remorse about a troubled time in his life.
From the very beginning of this picture we can see the depressed and bleak tone that this film wants to get across; within the first ten minutes we see a botched robbery, murder and a use of icy blues and whites on camera that offers no emotion other than cold desperation. This is the Boston that has only been hinted at in other works such as Good Will Hunting or Gone Baby Gone.
While the tone may be set very early on, the story isn’t. Watching this, I wasn’t really sure what sort of film it was until about half way in, and by this point I’d become slightly disengaged with it – although it did its very best to pull me back in into the final third.
Part of the reason the story is muddled early on is that it tries to fit far too many storylines in and loses focus on the parts that could have made this a truly incredible movie. Themes such as addiction, friendship, crime, desperation and respect are all explored but could have been handled with a simpler and defter touch.
These issues are only compounded by the poor editing and unsteady camera work throughout. The lack of control in the telling of this story is somewhat of a disappointment and only makes you wish for a more experienced director working on such a powerful story.
From the slightly shaky opening though, the story does pick up and towards the end you are wondering exactly how you could have got by in this harsh and unflinching world that these characters live in.
The characters themselves are varied and subtle, all with flaws and imperfections that help to make this a much more believable tale then most. Special mention has to go to the excellent Mark Ruffalo as his portrayal of Brian is wonderful to behold. He manages to blend desperation, aggression and bittersweet love in such a way that you are truly mesmerised by him throughout.
Unfortunately not all the characters are portrayed with the same level of finesse and power as Ruffalo’s. Paulie, played by Ethan Hawke, is a character that you should be able to form some kind of connection with due to his friendship with Brian. Regrettably this is not the case as Hawke seems far too familiar in this role and doesn’t forge the connection with you as an audience member that is needed for you to have a greater attachment to this film.
Furthermore, Amanda Peet is annoyingly underutilised as Brian’s long-suffering wife Stacy which really makes it a struggle to connect with her other than by pitying her and the situation she is in.
Despite my criticism of this film and some of the actors, this is incredibly solid work for a directorial debut and did manage to leave me wondering about my life and how things could have been very different, had I different childhood.
All that can really be said is if you are a fan of Ruffalo, this film is a definitive must-see as his performance is breathtaking and makes you wonder how long it will be before some serious award considerations comes his way.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Ozzy Armstrong is a Stargate and Rocky superfan. Follow him on Twitter.
Originally published September 2, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
