Review: What Doesn't Kill You (2008)

"What Doesn't Kill You" aka Real Men Cry was shot in Southie and Brighton at the end of 2007. It was produced by the now bankrupted Yari Film Group, and went straight to DVD in 2008.

It's your quintessential cliche Boston flick: A Irish-American kid from South Boston struggles to do the right thing. He has a wise-cracking, streetsmart friend. He gets in a brawl or starts a life of crime. He becomes estranged from his loved ones. He finds redemption. Everybody has quasi-Southie accent. Haven't I seen this before? (Good Will Hunting/Boondock Saints/The Departed/Southie)

Oh, this one's based on a true story? A local guy wrote it? Fine. We're sorry we called it cliche then.

"What Doesn't Kill You" could have been a decent movie. It's gritty and has pretty good performances... but it's not enough to rescue the film from bad editing. There's no rhythm or suspense here. It's hard to follow the plot the way it abruptly jumps from scene to scene, until you get the following audience exchange:

"What the hell is going on?"

"I don't know and I don't really care anymore."

The crew worked their asses off in cold and snow to make this film. "What Doesn't Kill You" had the additional challenge of filming during the 2007 writers strike. Perhaps a few draft revisions would have saved things. We'll never know.

Final Score = D