Leofwine_draca WHAT DOESN'T KILL YOU is a film which has familiarity working against it. It's a working class crime drama about a couple of brothers who live in a world of petty theft, general criminality and drugs, and the story sees one of them trying to go straight and make good for his family. The film is based on the experiences of writer/director Brian Goodman, but the tropes are so similar to many films which have come before that the viewer feels rather jaded by it all.Saying that, the film does have one saving grace, which is a lead role for Mark Ruffalo. Others like Donnie Wahlberg and Ethan Hawke are okay, but it's Ruffalo who shines in a star-making turn here. Ruffalo has been one of my favourite modern actors in Hollywood for a while, delivering compelling performances in ZODIAC and SPOTLIGHT among others, and he's equally authentic here; you can see the anguish lurking behind his eyes. Without Ruffalo, this would have been a slog to sit through; with him it's pretty decent.

Spaceygirl Well-made with engaging performances and a good script, 'What doesn't kill you' makes for an afternoons decent entertainment. Allegedly based on real-life events which is a scary thought that life can be so hard for some people. Comparisons to 'The Departed' are inevitable, although a far superior film, 'The Departed' suffered from a lack of humanity. Mark Ruffallo provides a human heart to this film with an affecting performance that stays with you long after the film has ended. Ethan Hawke suffers with a one-dimensional character and bad editing and Donnie Wahlberg provides able support. All in all, a very competent film well told.

bryan-ross-molinelli This movie was your typical connect-the-dots street crime drama. You have your cookie-cutter bad-guys as good-guys setup, Ethan Hawke playing against type, the dumb mom with a heart of gold who can't resist her sadistic, flunky husband, etc., etc, etc. All of this would have been fine if not for three major problems: 1) the acting sucked. (2) the editing sucked. (3) The pacing was awful.I'm not going to get too into the bad acting. Bad acting is bad acting. A bunch of guys shouting "hey, where you going?" to each other for the better part of 2 hours gets old fast, and requires little subtlety or range. I won't linger on the film's pacing, either. You can see for yourself that there are several slightly interesting street scenes among the main characters, and then these slow, tedious, pointless domestic scenes that try to illustrate just how low these low-lives really are.The true sin this film commits is in its editing. First question - why is it ALWAYS winter? This entire film supposedly spans about 20 years. Yet every scene is set in gray, cold, bleak weather. Adding insult to injury is the director and editor's inability to be consistent about what kind of permanent winter they're trying to capture here. Repeatedly throughout the entire movie there are juxtapositions of scenes where one scenario plays out with six inches of fresh snow on the ground - then cuts away instantly to what logically plays out as something that is happening only a few hours or even just minutes later - with NO SNOW on the ground! This happens constantly, back and forth, back and forth, snow/no snow, snow/no snow. It's like, what the hell's the deal with this? Is it winter or not? Or is it late October? and how can it go from looking like the middle of January one minute, to the beginning of November the next, with reddish leaves on the trees and softer sunlight? Truly an editing disaster, and unless it was supposed to be symbolic of something, utterly pointless. As is most of this movie, aptly titled "What Doesn't Kill You." The rest of the phrase is, "Makes You Wish It Had." At least, that's the case here.

meeza Time for "yet another cliché" time: They say "what doesn't kill you" makes you stronger. Well, the crime drama "What Doesn't Kill You" makes me "yawn"der. Not to say that I do not commend Director Brian Goodman's bravado & courageous attempt to orchestrate a film narrative based on his real-life crime & alcoholic ridden past in the streets of South Boston. However, I was sporadically bored with some misfires of "What Doesn't Kill You". Mark Ruffalo stars as Brian Reilly, the character which Goodman's past is based on. Let's say that the Reilly Factor is surrounded with: drug dealing & consuming, drunken binges, theft & larceny, adultery, and a few more "no-no" misbehaviors. The Life of Brian also consists of a beautiful & impatient wife, two innocent young songs, and Brian's partner in crime: his childhood best friend Paulie. Brian & Paulie got into being Boston Ruins already as teenagers when they started working for crime boss Pat Kelly, and it gradually spurned into a profound life of constant crime into adulthood by standing pat in continuing to work for Kelly. Brian did pick up a family along the way and Paulie picked up loose women along the way. Paulie also want a cracker? Yes, due to all the narcotic dealings Paulie scammed up in the streets of South Boston. Nevertheless, the main character & plot gun of "What Doesn't Kill You" is Brian with his constant struggle to fight the ill pills of crime & alcoholism in order to be faithful to his wife and supportive to his sons. Even through jail terms and being shot three times to near mortality, Brian still has much trouble resisting the life of Crime Brian because it is all he has ever known. Ruffalo was very effective as Brian Reilly, and Ethan Hawke was in par with Ruffalo with his killer performance as Paulie. Would of have loved to see more of Donnie Wahlberg's stellar work as Detective Moran, Goodman underdeveloped that pivotal character. Amanda Peet was moderately impressive as Brian's wife Stacy, and Brian Goodman himself was a good man acting playing the shady character Pat Kelly. However, Goodman was not so good in directing too many repetitive overwrought scenes that did not move the story in any revelatory method, and should have been charged with second-degree cinematic robbery by stealing similar dialogue from other crime-drama genre films. In his defense though, Goodman is a novice filmmaker and shows promise & potential that what doesn't kill him in the movie industry will make him a stronger director. Goodman just a few years ago was in prison, so it is a tremendous accomplishment in the life change he has endured and also in bringing it to film; so one has to admire that "Goodman Redemption" resilient quality. It will not kill you to witness "What Doesn't' Kill You" but it will not make you cinematically stronger. *** Average