What Doesn't Kill You

Two friends growing up in South Boston, Brian and Paulie, have been doing small jobs for the local organised crime world since childhood. Years pass. Brian has a family and an addiction; Paulie never stops. They attempt something big and it does not go the way it should. Brian Goodman directs, co-writes, and takes a small part. Mark Ruffalo plays Brian, Ethan Hawke plays Paulie, Amanda Peet plays Brian's wife. It was sold as a gangster film and it is not one. Goodman is telling his own life: he did grow up in South Boston, he did commit crimes, he served time, and he became an actor after getting out. The cocaine scenes, the prison passages and the collapse inside the family come straight from that. So the narrative does not follow the genre's curve. There is no ascent, the big job is not a triumph, and the film gives its last section not to crime but to the attempt to stop. It went out on limited release and was barely noticed. It sits among the least seen work either Ruffalo or Hawke has done. Who it is for: viewers who want Boston crime drama and a realistic account of addiction. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for action. Very little happens, and that is a choice.