‘I Know This Much Is True’ on HBO: Mark Ruffalo Will Break Your Heart in Two Stunning Performances

HBO’s latest limited series I Know This Much is True opens in much the same way as the Wally Lamb novel it’s based on, with beleaguered house painter Dominick Birdsey (Mark Ruffalo) narrating the scene in which his troubled twin brother Thomas (Mark Ruffalo) hacks off his own hand in a public library. But while Lamb eases us into the scene, writer-director Derek Cianfrance stages it as a shocking moment of horror, stripped of any hint of melodrama, making it, and everything to come, all the more mournful.

I Know This Much is True is a poetic look at mental illness, grief, generational trauma, and guilt made all the more visceral by Cianfrance’s style and Ruffalo’s transcendent performance. It will suck you in, push you away, and leave you as rattled as its central protagonists. All in all, it is a stunning work of art that courageously stares down tragedy. However, the show is so dark that it might send you running to your therapist.

Wally Lamb’s I Know This Much is True debuted in 1998 and soon became a massive bestseller thanks to its dramatic subject matter and place on Oprah’s Book Club. Dominick Birdsey and his twin brother Thomas were twins born out of wedlock to an Italian-American mother (Melissa Leo) who soon married Ray Birdsey, a man whose heart had been irrevocably twisted by the demands of toxic masculinity (John Procaccino). While Dominick managed to excel in life, going on to be a teacher married to a beautiful wife named Dessa (Kathryn Hahn), Thomas spiraled. A paranoid schizophrenic, Thomas bounces in and out of treatment facilities, only getting worse when paired with cruel doctors and the wrong meds.

Dominick’s world falls apart when he and Dessa’s infant daughter, Angela, dies of SIDS. The loss creates a schism between the two, who divorce, and leaves Dominick unmoored. When we meet him at the beginning of both the show and the novel, Dominick has quit teaching to be a house painter and lives with his beautiful, but flighty, girlfriend Joy (Imogen Poots). Since the twins’ mother has died, Thomas’s rash decision to cut off his own hand throws Dominick into a fierce battle to protect his brother’s rights. It’s a journey that will force Dominick to ruminate on the past, all while facing his own shortcomings and sins.

Needless to say, I Know This Much is True isn’t light viewing. It is a painful examination of the everyday tragedies that chase us throughout our lives like the Furies of Ancient Greek myth. At times, Dominick flirts with the idea that his family might in fact be cursed, but ultimately I Know This Much is True argues that the cycle of pain can only be broken with grace. Sins must be pardoned with reconciliation, and loss can only exist where first there is love.

I Know This Much is True is extremely troubling to watch. That may be more thanks to Cianfrance’s approach to the story than the source material itself, which can veer into melodrama. Cianfrance has proven in his films a rare ability to show audiences the ugly, candid side of life. It makes watching his work as uncomfortable as it is profound, and it’s no different here. Cianfrance prefers to root everything in unvarnished naturalism. He holds on each actor’s performances, opting to focus on the emotions of the characters over the rhythm of dialogue or slick camera tricks. (It’s worth noting that although he’s able to use CGI to easily put Ruffalo as both brothers in one frame, he’s reluctant to use it. Instead, he lets the performances take precedent over the technology.)

Furthermore, the pitch perfect cast sinks into their roles, disappearing into the trauma like it is quicksand. As Dominick, Ruffalo is bitterness incarnate. Civilized on the surface, he can barely keep his feral heart in line in tense confrontations with, well, everyone. As Thomas, he is a soft, tender emblem of lost chances. It is a truly sublime two-hander of a performance that you can’t imagine any other actor pulling off. Rosie O’Donnell is great as Thomas’s advocate, Lisa Sheffer, a woman who has to juggle frustration and optimism, while verbally wrestling with Dominick. And Archie Panjabi, Kathryn Hahn, and Melissa Leo are as exquisite here as they are everywhere else.

I Know This Much is True is difficult to watch, but that’s because it actually succeeds in adapting Wally Lamb’s novel for the screen. Rather than treat the tragedies of the Birdsey twins’ lives as fodder for a soap opera, I Know This Much is True reframes their journey as a true epic. But instead of battling armies or facing down gorgons, the Dominick and Thomas have to face their psychological demons, and more importantly, each other.

I Know This Much is True premieres on HBO on Sunday, May 10.

Where to stream I Know This Much is True