Mark Ruffalo Movies
After 12 years as a struggling actor, Mark Ruffalo became the next big thing with his exceptional performance in the Oscar-nominated independent film You Can Count on Me (2000). Wisconsin-born Ruffalo wanted to be an actor as a child, but he ignored his early aspirations until the end of high school. Not sure what else to do, Ruffalo headed to Los Angeles at 18 "out of desperation" to study the craft at the prestigious Stella Adler Conservatory. After taking classes for several years and evading career decisions, Ruffalo began to venture into L.A. theater and independent film. Along with acting in over 30 plays, as well as writing and directing one of his own theater works, Ruffalo spent the 1990s amassing roles in indie movies, beginning with A Gift From Heaven (1994). Working mostly in comedies, Ruffalo appeared in The Last Big Thing (1996) and alongside comic character actor stalwarts Steve Zahn and Paul Giamatti in Safe Men (1998); he also starred as an artist with love problems in the romantic comedy Life/Drawing (1999). Trying his hand at screenwriting, Ruffalo penned Slamdance success The Destiny of Marty Fine (1996). Two potentially higher-profile films, the disco period film 54 (1998) and Ang Lee's Civil War epic Ride With the Devil (1999), failed to make a positive impression on critics and audiences.Ruffalo's luck began to change, however, when he was cast in an off-Broadway production of This Is Our Youth. Not only did he win an acting award, but Ruffalo also got to know the playwright, Kenneth Lonergan. Despite his non-resemblance to future onscreen sister Laura Linney, Ruffalo talked Lonergan into auditioning him for the role of Linney's brother in Lonergan's first film, You Can Count on Me. Well-matched in familial chemistry, Ruffalo's self-destructive, irresponsible, sensitive Terry meshed perfectly with Linney's uptight Sammy and her sheltered son, Rudy (Rory Culkin), creating a deeply felt portrait of troubled yet strong family bonds. Earning raves for its nuanced performances as well as sharp writing, You Can Count on Me garnered Ruffalo the Montreal Film Festival's Best Actor prize and talk of an Oscar nod. Though he didn't get the nomination, Ruffalo swiftly moved up the Hollywood ranks, starring as an imprisoned military pilot caught between Robert Redford and James Gandolfini in The Last Castle (2001), and as a soldier in John Woo's WWII saga Windtalkers (2001).
Ruffalo's ascent to stardom was temporarily sidetracked, however, when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor while filming The Last Castle in 2000. Forced to drop out of the Joaquin Phoenix role in M. Night Shyamalan's summer hit Signs (2002), Ruffalo had surgery and spent months rehabilitating from the procedure. Having made a full recovery, Ruffalo returned to work.
After Ruffalo appeared as Gwyneth Paltrow's boyfriend in the woeful flop View From the Top (2003), his lead performance as the male axis of a complicated love triangle in the indie film XX/XY (2003) garnered far more enthusiastic critical kudos than the movie itself. Ruffalo also stayed firmly within the independent cinema realm, co-starring as terminally ill Sarah Polley's lover in the drama My Life Without Me (2003). Ruffalo subsequently scored roles in two higher-profile, if still offbeat, Hollywood projects. In Jane Campion's long-gestating adaptation of erotic thriller In the Cut (2003), Ruffalo co-starred as a homicide detective who becomes involved with Meg Ryan's lonely New York professor.
2004 started off with a bang for Ruffalo when We Don't Live Here Anymore, a film he both starred in and produced, received the top dramatic prize at the Sundance Film Festival. The film saw the actor teamed with Laura Dern, Peter Krause, and Naomi Watts and traced the crumbling of four characters' friendships and marriages when two of them engage in an affair. Ruffalo's next two roles would be increasingly lighter by comparison. In the Charlie Kaufman-scripted brain twister The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, he played a goofy scientist who attempts to erase Jim Carrey's memories of Kate Winslet. He then starred opposite Jennifer Garner in the romantic comedy 13 Going on 30.
Three for three with the critics in 2004, Ruffalo's next project of the year was not only met with positive reviews but was a box-office winner as well. In Michael Mann's Collateral, Ruffalo played the lawman trying to track down a menacing hitman played by Tom Cruise as the hired gun terrorizes cabdriver Jamie Foxx.
Ruffalo attempted to capture a mass audience with a pair of big-budget romantic comedies in 2005. Sadly, both Just Like Heaven and Rumor Has It... failed to garner large box office, even though Ruffalo was fine in both efforts. The next year, he appeared in Kenneth Lonergan's second directorial feature, Margaret, and he was part of the powerhouse cast for Steven Zaillian's remake All the King's Men, which included Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, and Anthony Hopkins. While All the King's Men, too, failed to gain a solid following -- an especially shocking surprise given the powerhouse cast on display in the film -- the verdict on Margaret had yet to be decided when, in early 2007, Ruffalo appeared onscreen opposite Robert Downey Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal in director David Fincher's Zodiac. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- 2000
Mark Ruffalo and Derek Cecil star in this gritty police drama, produced by Barry Levinson, about men who pound the streets and struggle with their inner demons. Officer Zane Marinelli (Ruffalo) is a conflicted womanizer who keeps company with Beatrice (Heather Burns), a psychotically unstable young lass who torches apartments to show her displeasure with things. His partner, Officer Mike Dorigan (Cecil), on the other hand, is devoted to his med student girlfriend. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Heather Burns, Lea DeLaria, (more)
- 1999
After four decades in show business, the husband and wife comedy team of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara finally make their big-screen debut together in this story about a marriage on its last legs. Sam (Stiller) and Molly (Meara) have been married for over 40 years. Their children are grown and living on their own, and the romance has drifted out of their relationship; arguing has become their favored method of communication. But the bickering goes too far when Molly asks Sam to get rid of the carp he's keeping in the tub in their guest bathroom. Sam informs Molly that if she doesn't like the fish, she can leave -- and Molly takes him up on the offer, moving in with their son Joel (Mark Ruffalo). This is hardly good news for Joel, who is having problems with his wife and feeling tempted to stray by an attractive blonde at work. Meanwhile, Sam and Molly's daughter Ruth (Jane Adams) tries to convince her father to win back her mother, but Sam receives some surprising competition when Molly starts dating an old friend named Lou (Bob Dishy). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara, (more)
A complex tale of uneasy alliances along the Kansas/Missouri border during the Civil War, Ride with the Devil concerns Jack Bull Chiles (Skeet Ulrich), a proud son of the South ready to fight for the Confederate cause after his father is killed by Union troops. Chiles's best friend, Jake Roedel (Tobey Maguire), joins the Bushwhackers, a group of renegade Southerners aligned with the Confederate Army, even though his family supports the Union cause. The two young men, used to the slow pace and gracious lifestyle of the South's privileged class, are soon confronted with the chaos of battle. Their comrades include valiant leader Black John (James Caviezel), paranoid madman Pitt (Jonathan Rhys Myers), Southern gentleman George (Simon Baker), and Daniel (Jeffrey Wright), a slave from George's plantation. The Bushwhackers hide out in a barn near the home of Sue Lee (singer/songwriter/poet Jewel, in her film debut), a pregnant widow whose husband died in battle three weeks after their marriage. Roedel and Sue Lee begin a chaste romance, but it remains to be seen if the war will permit them to stay together. Adapted from the novel Woe to Live On by Daniel Woodrell, Ride with the Devil was directed by Ang Lee, whose previous project was a very different look at America's past, the 1970s domestic drama The Ice Storm (1997). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Skeet Ulrich, Tobey Maguire, (more)
Can a would-be artist find happiness with a woman who has never heard of Jackson Pollock? That's the dilemma facing Alex (Mark Ruffalo), whose life is finally going just the way he'd like; he's scored a one-man show at an upscale gallery, and is sharing an apartment with a beautiful model named Yvette (Anne-Marie Johnson). A few days later, however, Alex's life is in tatters; the curator of the gallery informs him his work is soulless and cancels his show, while Yvette hands Alex his walking papers. With no money and nowhere to go, Alex takes a job at a pizza place and finds an flat in a squalid building where the super, Ray (Alan Gelfant), has a habit of walking in unannounced at any time of the day or night. Along with a colorful group of neighbors, including a desperate middle-aged woman who can do wonders with Spam and a hooker with a remarkable collection of "work clothes," Alex meets Lori (Beth Ulrich), a sweet-natured woman who has just moved to L.A. from Colorado. At first they seem to hit it off, but Alex thinks Lori lacks big-city sophistication, and she knows nothing about modern art. Alex breaks up with her, but it doesn't take long for him to realize he's made a mistake -- or for his neighbors to start reminding him of that. Life/Drawing marked the directorial debut of Dan Bootzin, who co-wrote the screenplay with his producer and spouse, Elizabeth Rivera Bootzin; the film was warmly received in its premier engagement at the 1999 Taos Film Festival, then aired on U.S. cable in 2003, retitled Apartment 12. It premiered on DVD in 2006 under the same title. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Ruffalo, Beth Ulrich, (more)
A case of mistaken identity forces a pair of lounge singers to pose as safecrackers in this farce. Sam (Sam Rockwell) and Eddie (Steve Zahn) are hapless musicians; Frank (Mark Ruffalo) and Mitchell (Josh Pais) are expert safecrackers. But when local Jewish gangster Big Fat Bernie Gayle (Michael Lerner) dispatches his henchman, Veal Chop (Paul Giamatti), to trick the safecrackers into service, the hapless Veal Chop can't tell the difference. In the end, Sam and Eddie are forced to go along with Veal Chop's mistake and perform three separate robberies for the imposing Big Fat Bernie. During their very first mission -- to rob the safe of local fence Good Stuff Leo (Harvey Fierstein) -- they're apprehended by Hannah (Christina Kirk), Leo's affable, deadpan daughter. Hannah lets the guys go, but sparks fly between her and Sam. It just so happens, however, that real safecracker Frank is her ex-boyfriend, and that she's sworn off dating criminals for life. The coincidences, double crosses, and unlikely romance culminate in the bar mitzvah of Bernie's son, Little Big Fat Bernie (Michael Schmidt), whose present is the Stanley Cup -- the actual hockey trophy -- which was stolen from Good Stuff Leo by the reluctant Sam and Eddie. Shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, Safe Men marked the writing and directing debut of future Meet the Parents and Zoolander scribe John Hamburg. The film also gave a pre-stardom Mark Ruffalo one of his first featured roles. Sam Rockwell and Josh Pais previously appeared together in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Rockwell, Steve Zahn, (more)
- 1997
Christmas Eve is just like any other work day for pickpocket Trish Tracy (Mary Stuart Masterson) and her niece Patsy (Lauren Suzanne Pratt). With a store full of suckers ripe for plucking, Trish and Patsy work the crowd, amassing quite a fortune before they're caught by sharp-eyed (and soft-hearted) security guard Bert (Mark Ruffalo). Rather than have Trish spend the Holidays in jail and turning over Patsy to Social Services, Bert agrees to be temporarily responsible for the pair--and that's how Trish and Patsy end up passing the Yuletide days in Bert's tiny apartment. For the most part, this made-for-cable movie emulates such previous Christmas-themed films as 1940's Remember the Night?, though towards the end of the story the writers throw a curve at the audience by introducing an unsavory character who plans to kidnap perky Patsy. On the 2nd Day of Christmas debuted December 8, 1997, on the Lifetime channel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
- NR
Dan Zukovic wrote and directed the L.A. social satire The Last Big Thing. He also stars in the film as Simon Geist, a self-styled intellectual, cultural critic, and agent provocateur . Simon is spewing his bile about the millennial decline of popular culture to the oblivious patrons of a video store when he gets the attention of Darla (Susan Heimbeinder). Darla, a "trust fund baby" who resentfully accepts her father's financial support, responds to Simon's nihilistic rhetoric and his air of certainty. She's drawn to "the mystery of someone who appears to have an agenda." Soon, Darla is helping Simon by setting up interviews with up-and-coming actors and alternative bands for his magazine, "The Next Big Thing." Of course, the magazine doesn't actually exist, and the interviews Simon conducts are essentially performance art pieces in which he insults his subjects for their complicity in the destruction of American culture. Darla is in love with Simon, who consents to live with her (off her father's money) but is cold to her. Although she keeps her collection of 1970s TV show memorabilia a deep dark secret, he constantly derides her for her unwitting participation in our degraded culture. One of the actors Simon interviews, Brent (Mark Ruffalo of You Can Count on Me) loses his gig on a TV medical drama, and shows up on Simon's doorstep, saying he's in a "period of re-evaluation," and Darla nervously welcomes him into their circle. Simon also interviews a pretty model, Tedra (Pamela Dickerson), who sees through his magazine ruse instantly. Tedra is still intrigued with Simon, and gets him a job directing a music video for a hot new band he'd previously interviewed. Meanwhile, Darla begins producing her own magazine, which will expose the truth about her relationship with Simon, and his sordid past. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- 1996
A has-been fighter finds himself extorted into becoming a hitman to save himself in this crime drama. The mess began while the opportunistic Marty was trying to convince a mobster to participate in his latest quick money scam. The would-be investor is suddenly shot and killed. Marty sees it all and promises to stay quiet. That's not good enough for Daryl, the mob boss behind the hit and to make sure he forces Daryl to kill another in exchange for his own life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
In this spoofy horror outing from veteran genre director Brian Yuzna, L.A. Law vet Corbin Bernsen plays Dr. Feinstone, an anal-retentive Beverly Hills dentist with an amusement park of an office replete with Planet Hollywood-worthy, themed exam rooms, piped-in opera music, and a crisp, efficient staff. When Feinstone finds out that his lovely wife, Brooke (Linda Hoffman), is fellating the pool boy, he becomes unhinged -- haunted by visions of filthy mouths and faithless spouses. Inviting Brooke back to the office on their anniversary and begging her to indulge him in his hobby of cleaning her teeth, Feinstone performs a little unorthodox oral surgery and soon uses his now-disfigured sweetie to lure her boyfriend into a backyard trap. Revenge doesn't cure Feinstone's homicidal urges, however, and soon his violence and sexual obsessions spill over into his practice -- especially after creepy IRS investigator Marvin Goldblum (Earl Boen) shows up for a little "I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine." Soon, patients and staff members alike are interacting with drills and laughing gas in ways they never expected. Filmed for, and originally shown on, HBO, The Dentist did not receive a U.S. theatrical release. Yuzna, Bernsen, and Hoffman reunited two years later for The Dentist II: Brace Yourself. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Corbin Bernsen, Linda Hoffman, (more)
The same haunted mirror that bedeviled people in the first film is back. This time it is used to help a crook steal a young girl's rightful inheritance. Low-budget chills. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1994
Fraser (Paul Gross) and Ray (David Marciano) become temporary daddies when someone leaves a baby in the back of Ray's car. Following the trail of clues, the two lawmen determine that the child has been sold to a black-market adoption racket. Though he is all for turning the kid over to the proper authorities, Ray allows Fraser six hours to track down the infant's birth parents--and to try to talk some sense into their heads. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Gross, David Marciano, (more)
- 1994
This Southern Gothic drama of a deeply troubled family was written by leading man David Steen, who adapted the screenplay from his own play. Ma Samuals (Sharon Farrell) lives in a poor section of rural North Carolina during the 1970s. Her slightly retarded son Charlie (Steen) was the product of an incestuous relationship with her uncle, a preacher who seduced her when she was only 12; despite this experience, Ma remains a devout Fundamentalist Christian. Ma also lives with her adopted daughter, Messy (Gigi Rice), though it's obvious that Charlie is the favored child, and Messy is often the target for Ma's abuse. When Cousin Anna (Sarah Trigger) is orphaned, she comes to stay with the Samuals family, which upsets the household's already shaky emotional balance. Ma disapproves of Messy's new friendship with Anna, believing she's a poor influence on her daughter, and when Anna begins spending time with Charlie, her obsessive love for her son (which has already spilled over into incest) threatens to push her over the brink. A Gift from Heaven marked the feature debut for both screenwriter Steen and director Jack Lucarelli. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sharon Farrell, Gigi Rice, (more)
