Review of What Doesn't Kill You (2014) by Jacek S — 20 Apr 2009

Damn, I may not be a target for that kind of picture. Nevertheless, as much as making money and providing to a family can be a problem in real life, I'm not sure it can be a strong basis to provide a strong drama anymore. Especially when it is poorly-structured and in center puts a flat character. Basically, Brian Goodman's "What Doesn't Kill You" offers a true story about small-time criminal Brian Reily (tiresome Mark Ruffalo) going from bad to good. Being a primitive alcoholic degenerate, doing small mayhem around Boston with his childhood friend, Paulie (mis-casted Ethan Hawke) he goes to prison for five years and after being released he discovers what true life actually is and his will, sobriety and strength are put to a test. Better later than never, right? Yeah, contemporary cinema told us this many times before: playing a gangster is somewhat like being a pop star: with all its partying and zero responsibility involved, it sure as hell can put you off the reality...

And so, paradoxically, while "What Doesn't Kill You" should cheer us up and provide us hope as it intended with its ultimate message, in the end it turns out to be one hell of a frustrating (if not depressing) picture. Its predictiablity, plot-holes, psychological shortcomings, unoriginality in character development and dialogue, wooden pace and lame, uninspired direction are among the worst in recent memory and maybe Hollywood should finally realize that true story doesn't equal a moving picture, or even a moving story. In a way, it is the same terrible good-advice-of-a-movie-of-don't-you-quit for a simple people as deeply-hated by me "The Pursuit of Happyness" was, supposedly dealing with reality but having no real fundament to be convincing, being merely an awfully cynical Hollywood cash-squezzer. Is "What Doesn't Kill You" any better? Well, it's nice to see a man finally realizing that the family is far more important than an egoistic, drug-filled gangster trip. Let's applaud it, yes. But where is the drama?

Then again, in cinema even a well-meant idea is only a beginning.