It’s nice seeing Ruffalo back in this small-town, regular-guy vein, and he tucks into his double task with respectable intensity. This project brings Ruffalo the closest he’s been, of late, to the granular, wistful realism of his breakout role in 2000’s You Can Count On Me, another weary but far more affecting sibling drama from Kenneth Lonergan.
I’m sure some are curious to see what Lamb’s work looks like on screen, but perhaps more will be intrigued by the presence of producer-star Mark Ruffalo-gone from bright Hulk green to a shaggy pallor to play twin brothers reeling in a spin cycle of tragedy. It’s tough to say what the expectations for this series are, at least in terms of its status as the latest premier-class HBO adaptation of a popular novel. The novel, and Lamb’s other work, have had their legions of fans, but I wonder how many have stuck with their ardor for the 24 years it took for this adaptation to happen. I should probably disclose that, though it was a big thing for some kids in my high school back in the day, I have not read Lamb’s 900-page book. Though I found much of I Know This Much Is True to be a gloomy slog-turns out I was not one of the people looking for a story of illness and regret at this particular juncture-it does, in Cianfrance’s careful hands, eventually arrive at a bleary poignancy. It ought to serve you the desired litany of tragedies and sorrows, a long ribbon of terrible things unspooled, with grim languor, by writer-director Derek Cianfrance. If, during the current plague, you haven’t had quite enough of medical horrors and the clenching feeling of being utterly stuck in place, you may want to seek out the new HBO mini-series I Know This Much Is True (May 10), based on the 1996 smash-hit, Oprah’s Book Club novel by Wally Lamb.
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