What Doesn't Kill You

Objective Rating (How much merit I think it deserves):
5.5/10
Subjective Rating (How much I personally like it):
5/10

This is based on the life story of the director and writer, Brian Goodman. Which made me have a new respect for the movie. Man, I'm always gaining new respect for movies through the "making of" special feature.

But I didn't like the movie a lot to start with. It's bittersweet, to be sure, more bitter than sweet. But I was expecting something else. I was expecting a crime thriller, but the movie offered more reflection, more inflection, more contemplation, more emotional content than I thought. It was not exactly preachy but comes dangerously close.

Mark Ruffalo, Ethan Hawke, Amanda Peet, some of my favourite actors. Especially Ethan Hawke. Has this gaunt, sharp, almost broken but still resilient quality to him. Mark Ruffalo is usually sweet in the romantic comedies, but he's going into new territories with films like this one. Amanda Peet, well, I've liked her since Identity.

The story... eh, two small-time criminals, Brian (Ruffalo) and Pauled (Hawke) are best friends, always doing something petty to chase after a buck or two. Paul is a playboy while Brian has a wife (Peet) and two sons. The story is set in South Boston, where Brian Goodman was a small-time criminal in real life in the early 90's.

Brian falls through some pretty hard times, picking up a drug and alcohol addiction. His marriage kind of falls apart and his relationship with his sons are shot to hell too. Then he and Paulie get picked up and sent to jail for 5 years for stealing a truck full of goods.

5 years can be a long time. When Brian comes out, his sons have grown but his wife has decided to stay with him. He vows to not lose any more time with them. He tries to get a job and be straight. He fights the temptation for drugs and alcohol. For a while it looks pretty good, but then reality kind of hits hard. He's a convicted criminal, it's hard enough for people who haven't been in jail to find jobs. He's behind on his sons' tuition fees and the utilities bills. He is almost dragged back into a downward spiral again.

Paulie comes up with the idea of robbing an armoured car. If they succeed, they succeed big time. If they get caught, they get put away for life, basically. What is it going to be?

The movie is about a man's choices, and life can be ever so unforgiving toward a man with a past. And I respect that entirely. But the movie is almost entirely drama and no crime. I mean, there's plenty of theft and robbing and shooting and crack smoking, but that's not crime when you are talking about movies. There is no thrill. I just wish I wasn't sold on something and then given something else.

As to the human spirit aspect, I'm with the director 100%. Obviously I don't know him personally, but I feel really glad that he was able to find his way around the world again. After he got out of jail, he started doing small gigs for TV shows and movies, to bring the gritty reality to those pretend sessions. Along the way, he wrote a script of his life and gave it to Donnie Wahlberg (who has a small detective role in the movie). They got the film going eventually.

I guess I was looking something along the line of The Departed (Boston setting, someone with the last name "Wahlberg" attached to the project) and that is why I was disappointed. If I was a bit less biased, I might have enjoyed it more.