What Doesn’t Kill You is a thrilling recovery film with one fault – as well as most recovery films, it has no concluding act. As for an average character study, it is really not so important, but for a film which begins from a very unfortunate armored car robbery, the lack of a good final seriously damages this perfectly emotional and exciting drama.
The story of the film is a real story of the picture co-writer and director Brian Goodman, a lad from South Boston who was imprisoned for a few years before getting his break in Ted Demme’s Monument Ave. and featuring in some movie projects of a renowned producer Rod Lurie. Goodman got to be known in Hollywood as a tough, square-jawed guy from the old Republic serial, so it’s not surprising that his first project as filmmaker was devoted to his life before the Hollywood popularity as a second-string Southie hoodlum.
In the film, Goodman is represented as Brian, played by Mark Ruffalo. He is an unimportant fellow in a gang of a local gangster Pat, played by Goodman himself. This guy pays no attention to his wife and kids instead, he patrols the streets pulling minor scams and gradually falling into an addiction. His childhood pal is Paulie, played by Ethan Hawke – a nice womanly operator who somehow evens out Brian’s self-destructive qualities.
The rest of the film after this robbery gives a rather disgusting flashback of life of unimportant crime-flick filler. The script writers (who are Paul T. Murray, Goodman himself, and Donnie Wahlberg who shows up in this film for some moments as a mustached policeman having it in for Brian) stress out the friends filthy life and great frustration at their financial dependence on Pat, who’s a tough and unkind guy. So shortly after Pat is sent to jail, Brian and Paulie begin pondering criminal schemes on their own, now without Pat.
Being a novice in film directing, Goodman still shows himself not only as a good actor and filmmaker (which is not surprising), but also a wonderful story maker. Of course, there are some moments that seem somewhat artificial, but all in all, the film is very sincere due to good actor performances (especially Hawke, who’s regarded as one of the most impressive actors of his generation) and the special sharp, wintry look.
What Doesn’t Kill You is very original in the beginning, though later, the plot developments becomes more traditional, giving the movie a seen-it look. An addiction recovery story is somewhat common in our modern culture, so it is very hard for an artist to make it interesting and touching for the audience. Fighting an addiction becomes in the last third of the film somewhat boring. In some aspect, the film’s lack of energy is due to doubtful screenplay, but mostly due to poor actor’s performance of Ruffalo, his neurotic pathos and artificial behavior especially in scenes where he plays without Hawke).
What Doesn’t Kill You is all in all not a failure movie, but it is one of those “could-be-better” films. However, Goodman’s good skills, good casting and good operators allow us to give Goodman a steady A- as a director.
Wonder Bread: That’ll kill you quick.