What Doesn’t Kill You

The directorial debut of character actor Brian Goodman, What Doesn’t Kill You follows lifelong friends Paulie (Ethan Hawke) and Brian (Mark Ruffalo) as they attempt to navigate the treacherous world of South Boston’s lawless underground. Though the pair have been content running small-time criminal endeavors (eg they agree to kidnap a poodle for $5,000), Paulie and Brian’s eventual efforts at going straight prove to be fair more difficult (and flat-out dangerous) than they ever could have imagined. Filmmaker Goodman, working from a script co-written with Donnie Wahlberg and Paul T. Murray, generally does a nice job of infusing the proceedings with a gritty sensibility that feels authentic, yet it’s hard to deny that there’s just something egregiously familiar about the whole thing. The uniformly superb performances notwithstanding – Ruffalo and Hawke’s expectedly stellar work is matched by a supporting cast that includes Wahlberg and Amanda Peet – What Doesn’t Kill You primarily unfolds in a manner that’s often just a little too reminiscent of other efforts set within South Boston’s rough streets. That being said, there’s no denying that the film improves considerably once it hits the one-hour mark – as Goodman’s decision to take the proceedings into an entirely unpredictable direction proves effective at resuscitating the viewer’s dwindling interest. The end result is a sporadically stirring endeavor that undoubtedly benefits from Ruffalo’s electrifying turn as Brian, and it’s consequently not a stretch to label What Doesn’t Kill You the best of Ruffalo’s three film fest flicks (after Blindness and The Brothers Bloom).

**1/2 out of ****