Stream It Or Skip It: ‘I Know This Much Is True’ On HBO, Where Mark Ruffalo Plays Twins In A Story About Family Loyalty And Mental Illness

Usually, when the same actor plays more than one character on a show or in a film, there’s a bit of a gimmicky aspect to it. “Oh, look, they’re on a split-screen!” But technology has improved to the point where seeing the same actor share the screen with him or herself doesn’t look or feel hokey anymore. Tatiana Maslany proved this to Emmy-winning effect in Orphan Black, and in the hands of an actor as skilled as Mark Ruffalo, a dual role feels even more natural and affecting. Ruffalo proves this in I Know This Much Is True, based on Wally Lamb’s 1998 novel. Read on for more…

I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We pan across a landscape of a peaceful-looking small town as we hear a train whistle in the background. As we keep panning, we see that we’re looking through the windows of a library, and we hear a man praying in the background.

The Gist: “On October 1, 1990, my twin brother Thomas Birdsey walked into the Three Rivers, Connecticut, public library and prayed to God that the sacrifice he was about to make would be deemed acceptable.” Those are the words of Dominick Birdsey (Mark Ruffalo) about the incident that causes his paranoid schizophrenic twin brother Thomas (also Ruffalo) to lose his hand.

Dominick recalls what led up to his sacrifice, as he took him from his job at the state institution’s Settle building and took him out to lunch earlier that day. Thomas was railing against the oil interests at play that led to troops going to Kuwait for the first Gulf War. Instead of staying at his group home, though, Thomas goes to the library, prays to God, and cuts off his right hand. In the hospital, Dominick is asked to sign consent for his brother to get reattachment surgery, but decides against it, mainly because Thomas keeps screaming about his sacrifice. “It’s his hand, it’s his choice,” he yells to the doctor.

Dominick flashes us back to their childhood. They were born on both sides of midnight as 1949 turned to 1950. Their stepfather Ray (John Procaccino) was constantly criticizing their mother Susan (Melissa Leo) that she was coddling Thomas, to the point here he was borderline abusive. Dominick would sleep in the backyard at times, hoping their biological father would sweep down from the sky and fly the three of them away from under Ray’s domineering control.

In 1986, their mother gets diagnosed with breast cancer, and it’s metastasized. As she deteriorates, she gives Dominick a copy of a manuscript her father wrote when he was still in Italy. He brings it to Nedra Frank (Juliette Lewis) an Italian scholar studying at the local university, to translate as a gift to his mother. As he gets updates from the high-strung academic, he learns that his grandfather wasn’t exactly a nice guy. Then Nedra shows up at Dominick’s apartment unannounced, gets drunk, and throws herself on him, getting enraged when he comes as she’s rubbing against him. Dominick is still getting over his divorce, and he hasn’t had much contact with anyone for awhile.

As their mom declines, Thomas refuses to see her, and at one point, he bolts Dominick’s car and runs across the highway; Dominick finds Thomas sitting in a shallow part of a river next to the highway. Thomas isn’t even there when their mother passes away.

Back to the aftermath of Thomas’ sacrifice. When Dominick brings Ray to see him in the hospital, he runs into his ex-wife, Dessa (Kathryn Hahn); she loved Thomas to death and wanted to visit. There’s still significant chemistry between the two, but Dessa is with someone else now, and besides, a significant tragedy is what split them in two, and even when he goes to kiss her, he knows that it can’t be mended again.

Dominick stays with Thomas as he gets discharged, and he’s alarmed that the cop car their in isn’t going back to Settle, but to the nearby Hatch facility, a maximum-security hospital for the criminally insane.

Our Take: I Know This Much Is True is based on Wally Lamb’s 1998 novel of the same name and adapted for television by writer/director Derek Cianfrance (The Light Between Oceans). In Cianfrance’s hands, the story is certainly strikes a very heavy, serious tone. Although Ruffalo plays both Thomas and Dominick, the dual role is not a gimmick in any way; Ruffalo certainly has the chops to play both, and he does so with such great skill that the viewer quickly forgets that both twins are played by the same actor.

There’s no doubt that this is a showcase for Ruffalo, as he’s in pretty much every scene as either Thomas, Dominick or both. He made the choice to gain weight to play Thomas, and that little bit of physical change makes the separation easier to accept. Both sides of Ruffalo’s performance are so heartbreaking and effective, and you can see the pain both Thomas and Dominick are suffering through in the small things Ruffalo does. As Thomas, it’s the furrowed brow and mannerisms of someone who, even under medication, is barely in control of his own impulses. As Dominick, he’s torn between protecting his brother at all costs and being distraught that his twin needs so much hand-holding in life. But he’s also not over the events that led to his divorce; he still wears his wedding ring, months after it was finalized.

Cianfrance’s direction plays to Ruffalo’s strengths. In the scene where Dominick has his last visit with his mother, Cianfrance decides to shoot from over Melissa Leo’s shoulder, and we only see Dominick’s eyes while she’s talking. We were completely drawn into the expressions of sorrow that Ruffalo was accomplishing just with his eyes and his brow, impressed at how he can communicate so much even if we don’t see him saying his side of the conversation. It’s that level of detail that allows him to play both Thomas and Dominick so distinctively. This is a man in the utmost control of his acting skills.

And while the story of the Birdsey brothers seems like it’s going to be relentlessly depressing, we know that Dominick is going to spend the rest of the miniseries trying to get his brother out of Hatch, as part of his desire to protect Thomas at all costs. So while the tone of I Know This Much Is True may not exactly be the most uplifting, the loyalty the two of them have for each other should at least give the show some light, even among the darkness.

Sex and Skin: Aside from the scene with Nedra rubbing up against Dominick, which isn’t particularly sexy, there isn’t much room for sexy times in this show.

Parting Shot: As Thomas is brought into Hatch, Dominick demands to see a social worker, then gets punched by the guards as he struggles with them to break free and help his brother.

Sleeper Star: Hahn does her usual emotionally layered best in her one scene as Dessa in the first episode. We’re looking forward to seeing more of her. Also, we’re going to see Rosie O’Donnell as the social worker helping Dominick, Archie Panjabi as Dominick’s doctor, and Imogen Poots as Dominick’s new girlfriend. All of those performances are ones we’re excited to see.

Most Pilot-y Line: Nothing that we could see.

Our Call: STREAM IT. I Know This Much Is True is an emotionally harrowing tale, but Ruffalo’s performance is so remarkable that you’ll find hope in the relationship between the Birdsey brothers.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

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