In his best roles, Mark Ruffalo is maddeningly endearing. The forty-six-year-old is adept at conveying contradictions: an inherently decent guy with issues, someone you want to yell at one minute and hug the next.
Ruffalo creates onscreen characters that we like in spite of ourselves. His soft, husky voice and shambling in a T-shirt in 2000’s “You Can Count on Me,” as the ne’er-do-well brother of an uptight bank employee (Laura Linney), put him on the map as the go-to guy for charming characters who, to paraphrase Men’s Journal, don’t quite have their act together. He’s brought vulnerability to the myriad cops he’s played and infused a sperm donor who meets his teenage offspring with goofy sincerity in “The Kids Are All Right” (2010). No wonder critics and comic fans alike think he’s the best blockbuster version of Dr. Bruce Banner and his alter-ego, the Incredible Hulk: “Ruffalo is a performer of such depth he could, and did, infuse the Hulk with soul,” the Los Angeles Times wrote.
Ruffalo’s specialty is on full display in “Begin Again,” out Friday. Ruffalo plays Dan, a washed-up music executive whose idealism reignites after he hears the raw talent of heartbroken songwriter Gretta (Keira Knightly). “I was having a nervous breakdown, and then I heard your song,” he says in the trailer with the earnestness that Gretta (and we) need to believe for their professional partnership to work.
Ruffalo’s career is an intriguing challenge for us at Word and Film, where we highlight adapted works. They make up the bulk of his filmography, from 1999’s “Ride with the Devil” to this year’s HBO adaptation of “The Normal Heart,” based on the Tony Award-winning play. Learn more about this versatile performer here.