Fact: Homer wrote "The Odyssey" so that one day there would be a website for college students to write rapturously about actor Mark Ruffalo. I don’t know man, he is just wildly endearing to me. While I adore the way he inhabits every character he plays, my favorite Mark Ruffalo characters are crazed with righteous fury, yelling their heads off.
I haven’t seen him in his most high-profile angry role, that of the Hulk, because you couldn’t pay me to watch a superhero movie. (That’s not entirely true. If we’re talking more than $18, and I can scroll through Twitter during the two-and-a-half hour runtime, of course you could pay me to watch a superhero movie.) But I will nonetheless be ranking the enraged-ness of Mark Ruffalo’s characters on a scale of zero to five Hulks.
(Spoiler warning for "13 Going on 30," "The Kids are All Right," "Begin Again," "Spotlight" and "The Normal Heart")
5. "13 Going on 30," 2004
I’ve seen the first half hour of this movie maybe 300 times. However, the only time I remember making it to the part with Mark Ruffalo, I was at a third-grade sleepover and majorly miffed because I’d wanted to watch "Cheaper By the Dozen." Personally, I think Ruffalo’s sad-eyed sensuality is wasted on the target demographic of this movie. Worse still, at no point does he break anything during an impassioned rant. But I think the moral might be to be nice to your dorky neighbor friend because he might grow up to be Mark Ruffalo, so that’s nice.
Rating: N/A because I don't remember
4. "The Kids are All Right," 2010
I love Mark Ruffalo, I love vegetables, and the amount of time his character spends tending leafy greens and tomatoes in this film is just excellent. Truly deserving of that Best Picture nomination.
While Ruffalo looks great in this movie, overall, it is kind of meh. Ruffalo’s character, Paul, is a mellow, responsibility-shirking drifter, so we don’t get any real rage out of him. I won’t hold Ruffalo responsible for the majorly clichéd dramatic device of “Lesbian Cheats On Her Partner With A Dude,” but yikes.
The titular All Right Kids really won the genetic jackpot, though, if that’s any consolation for their parents playing out tired stereotypes. It makes complete sense that Ruffalo’s DNA combined with Annette Bening’s would make Alice in Wonderland and his DNA combined with Julianne Moore’s would beget Peeta from the "Hunger Games." So plus one for scientific plausibility.
Rating: 0 Hulks
3. "Begin Again," 2013
First of all, Ruffalo, Keira Knightley and James Corden make for a trifecta of devastating perfection. Ruffalo’s character, Dan, starts out the movie as a gifted music producer who is down on his luck—depressed, estranged from his wife and daughter, never without a bottle or joint in his hand. So right off the bat, we’re in for some fruitful Emotional Drama. And Ruffalo does not disappoint, ripping a painting off a wall in the first 20 minutes. But the trajectory of this movie is a positive one, and the plot is pleasantly unexpected for a romantic comedy. I cried with relief when Dan kissed his music journalist wife at the end, his lovely friendship with Knightley’s much-younger character unsullied.
Rating: 3 Hulks
2. "Spotlight," 2015
When it comes to Mark Ruffalo characters, I have a type and that type is: Furious Writer Hellbent on Revealing the Truth. Damn does his performance as "Boston Globe" journalist Mike Rezendes deliver. I can’t rave enough about this heartrending movie in general, the entire cast, or its devastating importance. From a journalistic standpoint, it made me feel how "All the President's Men" is supposed to make people feel. Since this was supposed to be a light-hearted ode to Mark Ruffalo, I’m going to reel it in a little. A dedicated journalist chained to his desk from the start, Rezendes becomes more and more consumed as the story unravels. Towards the end of the film, when the "Globe" editor insists that the article needs more before it can be printed, he snaps. Rezendes wants people to know the truth, and his palpable rage left me shaking.
Rating: 4 Hulks
1. "The Normal Heart," 2014
In "The Normal Heart," based on Larry Kramer’s largely autobiographical play of the same name, Ruffalo stars as Ned Weeks. Set in New York at the outset of the AIDS crisis, Weeks is an openly gay writer who works with a doctor (played by Julia Roberts, also movingly seething) to raise awareness in a community in denial and a larger society who wants only to ignore the victims. As with "Spotlight," this movie deals with real-life tragedy. My intention here is to shamelessly and blatantly objectify Mark Ruffalo, not minimize these horrific events.
Everyone has their movies they watch when they need a therapeutic cry ("Titanic," "The Notebook," "The Fault In Our Stars" et al.) and this is one of mine. It’s merciless, and Ruffalo’s Ned Weeks is tireless. He rages at his friends, his fellow activists, his beloved older brother, the medical community, the mayor of New York, he even gets thrown out of the White House. As the death count mounts and Weeks goes to more and more funerals of friends, the fight in him flickers at times but it doesn’t go out.
Rating: 5 Hulks. This out-Hulks "Spotlight" only because while the "Spotlight" outburst is one concentrated scene, Ruffalo’s character in "The Normal Heart" is rightfully incensed from start to finish.
(Sidenote: can we talk about the actual Mark Ruffalo’s impassioned activism for a second?)
