What Doesn't Kill You

What Doesn’t Kill You


Director: Brian Goodman

Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Ethan Hawke, and Amanda Peet

MPAA - Rated R for language, drug use, some violence and brief sexuality.

A beautiful drama about the lives of two young street thugs growing up on the streets of south Boston; heart and soul and love, this is really what is at the center of What Doesn’t Kill You. Mark Ruffalo is amazing in this rough a tumble part, a real difference from the Hugh Grant style shy love interest he usually plays. He is backed by Ethan Hawke who plays a pretty stock character. He is not bad at all, but his character requires very little in the way of exploring new fields for Hawke. Both are a powerful duo however and with the mix of Amanda Peet as Ruffalo’s wife there are some pretty touching and intense moments in the film.

What Doesn't Kill You is pieced together a little differently than some movies. It kind of jumps from scene to scene a little bit throwing off continuity and it takes a little while to get used to this style. I almost shut the film off after about 20 minutes because I didn’t think the movie was going anywhere, but I stuck with it and I was not disappointed. The film makes a little too much use of the “F” word and while it works for the characters, they being uneducated and in the streets, it gets in the way of what could be have better dialogue. The screenplay doesn’t really focus on the script and doesn’t need it as badly as it needs the many and sometimes seemingly random scenes to build the plot and characters.

What was really good about What Doesn’t Kill you is its overlying moral message and its ability to put together a realistic story line about what really happens to people whose lives are left to unproductive activities. Ruffalo and Hawke go through a struggle that is much deeper than the fight to make some dough and keep up the reputations as the baddest on the block. They are trying to find what is truly important in their lives and what really matters. As the armed robberies, fist fights, and drugs pile up their lives become less free and more and more they find themselves painted into a corner.

This makes for a very interesting story, even though it takes a little longer than it should to take off. The intro really starts off with a bang and it hooks you, but then you have to suffer through some random scenes until you get the hang of the director’s style, over all though you are in for a treat. It is a gritty ride, with lots of bumps and what not but it is well worth it. What starts out as a questionable meal turns into a delicious feats and an emotional roller coaster. While not an amazing film What Doesn’t Kill You still gets an 8.5 out of 10 in my book.

Sex/Nudity – 5 out of 10 - a few women are seen in underwear at different times. One woman in a tight shirt and booty shorts is asked to dance for a man; she dances suggestively for a second. One woman is straddling a shirtless man in her underwear, he rejects her. A husband and wife kiss passionately but the scene cuts before anything happens. We see a shirtless man a few times.

Violence/Gore – 7 out of 10 - There are a lot of fist fights and guns. One man is shot at close range several times. A man is seen in the hospital after having been shot, he is in a lot of pain. A man is put in a car with two other men, the shoot his arm and question him, then from outside the car you see and hear several gun shots; we assume the man is killed. The violence is very realistic and fairly brutal. There is not a lot of blood, but plenty of violence.

Profanity – 10 out of 10 – The “F” word is used persistently throughout the film and other expletives liter the dialogue as well. It is not a badly written script, just heavy on the language.