Product Details

• Actors: Mark Ruffalo, Donnie Wahlberg
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: April 28, 2009
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001T6KW4S
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37,508 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "What Doesn't Kill You" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Brian (Mark Ruffalo) and Paulie (Academy Award® nominee Ethan Hawke, Best Actor In a Supporting Role for Training Day, 2001) are two lifelong friends who grew up like brothers on the gritty streets of south Boston. They started early as street thugs living by the criminal code, doing petty crimes and misdemeanors that grew increasingly more serious. Eventually they fall under the sway of organized crime boss Pat Kelly (Brian Goodman). As Brian becomes increasingly lost in a haze of drugs and 'jobs,' he consistently disappoints his loyal wife (Amanda Peet) and their two sons. Torn between the desire to be a good husband and the lure of easy money, Brian must make the hardest choice of his life.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great true story about responsibility and choices, May 14, 2009

By 

Andre Heeger (Germany) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Doesn't Kill You [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

Where do I begin? Acting - top class. Cinematography - terrific. Story - what can be better than real life stories?
"This is me, this is what I do." Brian (Mark Ruffalo) to his wife - played by Amanda Peet.
He is a Boston criminal. He doesn't know any better and neither does his friend Paulie (Ethan Hawke). Both have been doing jobs for their boss since they were kids.
Things go quite well at first. Brian makes a living. Nothing special but he and his family are doing all right. Then drugs get in the way and he loses control. A job goes wrong and both Brian and Paulie end up in jail.
There Brian finally realizes what he was throwing away all this time. A loving wife who still holds on to him, two great kids, love.
To me the best moment in the film is a scene after Brian is back home from prison and he talks to his eldest son on the porch. He knows he can't let them down again. If he does he will lose everything he ever had.
So he makes a choice, takes the last chance he's got. To be there for those who love him and not to deceive them again. He is strong and together they will make it.
As I said before, great acting by the entire cast, Mark, Ethan, Amanda, but also the kids, the crime boss (Brian Goodman - also first time director).
I loved Mark in Zodiac, Amanda in Syriana and Ethan in Training Day but here they are even better.
Most of the story takes place during the winter and although it's often sunny they toned down the colors adding a little to the weight of the drama.
The Blu-ray is marvelous. Crisp when needed (not overdone thank God) with the winter sun, yet at the same time tolerating a certain softness which adds to the intimacy and warmth.
Get it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Environmental influences breeding sociopathy...a true story., May 2, 2009

By 

Shiloh True "Rabid Reader" (Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: What Doesn't Kill You (DVD)

Mark Ruffalo (Brian) and Ethan Hawke (Paulie) are childhood friends, growing up on the mean-streets of South Boston. Early on, they are overtaken by the path of least resistance toward easy money, through the negative environmental influences surrounding them. They eventually become runners, and, the heavy-hand, for organized crime boss Pat Kelly (Brian Goodman). Sadly, given their surroundings, it became their destiny---'the apple does not fall far from the tree.'

As the viewer you are able to observe these boys evolve from small time crime, to full-blown, risk-taking, men, with little remorse for social misconduct and an aversion toward authority figures. Interestingly, Antisocial Personality Disorders only need to have 3, or more, of 7 traits, and these characters portrayed them all---to perfection. You begin to see neither of them as having any socially redeeming value. Could redemption be possible with such a prognosis?

This film is brilliantly acted, and a textbook portrayal of budding sociopathy and the destruction it creates. If you have interest in dysfunctional personality dynamics, you will really enjoy it. However, some may not, because this is not a high-action film, or one of those bloody, chop-off-fingers types, with nausea inducing, gratuitous violence. Yes, there are some violent scenes, but this film is more of a character study of Brian and Paulie. One examining consequences of choices, and whether or not redemption can be found---if it's even sought, when there is a rusty moral compass.

Mark Ruffalo is outstanding in this role. The hospital scene, alone, when he is demanding more 'pain medication,' and his subsequent behaviors afterward are textbook, drug-seeking, antisocial. I can vouch for this, first hand, as I have been on the receiving end of such tirades, as a health care professional.

Although left with a message of hope for one of the primary characters, the problem I had with this film, was the inability to have much empathy for any of them. Even for Ruffalo's wife, who functioned as an enabler; a wounded personality, herself. But, I don't think we were meant to have empathy---perhaps just a better understanding of how some criminals and addicts amongst us are created, with a little window into their mind.

Brian and Paulie's story did touch a nerve for me, that we need more intervention, better schools and community outreach in neighborhoods such as these---that we as a society keep dropping the ball. When every child isn't given more opportunities to roll out from under that apple tree, we ALL suffer the negative consequences.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A solid performance film, an average Blu, April 24, 2009

By 

Steve Kuehl "SLV Video" (Boulder Creek, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: What Doesn't Kill You [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

I was pleasantly surprised in seeing this excellent minimalist crime drama by first-time writer/director (and former jail occupant) Brian Goodman. For as little as the Blu format gets tested with this film though, I still appreciated the landscapes being preserved in 1080 to give this a decent rating.

The story centers on two childhood friends in South Boston and their 20+ year span of semi-organized crime, drugs and family life. Ethan Hawke and Mark Ruffalo both give outstanding performances with all of their usual nuances, and even a few new ones; Hawke's voice and demeanor has changed significantly of late. The trailer shows most of the action in the film, but just expect a well crafted dialogue and bleak visuals story about crime, addiction and loss.

The outer channels get used very little except for two or three gun scenes, and the picture clarity was all about seeing Boston in winter. There were actually no colors in the entire film except for one scene in the jail (bright yellow fencing). This would be more of a display test for your whites, blacks and silver hues. The supplements contain some standard deleted scenes, a typical "everyone is awesome" behind the scenes and a commentary with also first-time writer Donnie Wahlberg (has a small supporting role).

Not a technically outstanding Blu, but a worthy owner for fans of the actors, even for the Amanda Peet followers, she showed the best I have seen in her since she started.