"What Doesn't Kill You" is a slight but well acted tale of two childhood friends, Paulie and Brian, who struggle to make ends meet in Southern Bostom. The duo turn to crime at an early age, and soon find themselves working full-time for an Irish crime lord who tasks the couple with conducting local robberies. The pay's poor, but things will get better. Won't they?
The film then flashes forward several decades, but only to find Paulie and Brian, now played by actors Ethan Hawke and Mark Ruffalo, still conducting petty robberies. Money's hard to come by, their bosses take a large percentage of their earnings, and the duo begin to grow disillusioned. The rest of the film plays like a small-scale version of "Donnie Brasco", watching as organised crime sucks the life out of hard working foot-soldiers who exist in a kind of despondent stasis, waiting and waiting and hoping and hoping for something better as life itself passes them by.
The film was directed by Brian Goodman, and is reportedly based on his own true-life story growing up in Irish mobs. Amongst the cast, Ruffalo stands out as a word-weary, lethargic guy caught in a cruel loop. It's "Mean Streets" meets the Myth of Sisyphus, Hawke and Ruffalo hoping and toiling for a better tomorrow that doesn't come. The film closes on Ruffalo's son, Ruffalo hoping that his kid escapes this demented vortex. The guy's proud of his kid; maybe he'll make it.
The film's title is interesting. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, so the saying goes, but here survival is akin to a kind of condemnation.
Aesthetically the film's anonymously shot, though one helicopter fly-over of a wintry, snow capped Bostom stands out. As is typical of these films, all female roles are reduced to either eye-candy or screaming wives.
7.9/10 – Worth one viewing.
The film then flashes forward several decades, but only to find Paulie and Brian, now played by actors Ethan Hawke and Mark Ruffalo, still conducting petty robberies. Money's hard to come by, their bosses take a large percentage of their earnings, and the duo begin to grow disillusioned. The rest of the film plays like a small-scale version of "Donnie Brasco", watching as organised crime sucks the life out of hard working foot-soldiers who exist in a kind of despondent stasis, waiting and waiting and hoping and hoping for something better as life itself passes them by.
The film was directed by Brian Goodman, and is reportedly based on his own true-life story growing up in Irish mobs. Amongst the cast, Ruffalo stands out as a word-weary, lethargic guy caught in a cruel loop. It's "Mean Streets" meets the Myth of Sisyphus, Hawke and Ruffalo hoping and toiling for a better tomorrow that doesn't come. The film closes on Ruffalo's son, Ruffalo hoping that his kid escapes this demented vortex. The guy's proud of his kid; maybe he'll make it.
The film's title is interesting. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, so the saying goes, but here survival is akin to a kind of condemnation.
Aesthetically the film's anonymously shot, though one helicopter fly-over of a wintry, snow capped Bostom stands out. As is typical of these films, all female roles are reduced to either eye-candy or screaming wives.
7.9/10 – Worth one viewing.