Brian Goodman’s angsty biopic, What Doesn’t Kill You, features Ethan Hawke and an inspiring Mark Ruffalo as Paulie McDougan and Brian Reilly, two low level Irish Mobsters operating under an overly bleak Boston backdrop. Centering on the relationship between Paulie and Brian, the film is not thematically novel, but, what is these days? The two diverge after a brief stint in a minimum security Massachusetts prison. Paulie falls victim to his own greed and desperation while Brian, seeing his children drift further and further away as he alienates his beautiful wife (Amanda Peet, who’s natural beauty is shrouded in layers of trashy eye liner and highlights), tries earnestly to reform. While What Doesn’t Kill You is an honest portrayal of mediocrity and feeble attempts at self-improvement, Goodman essentially tells the same sob story of childhood friends undergoing life changing transformation. He uses site specific location shots to legitimize the film but even then, it doesn't feel truly authentic. [AHLA]
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