--- title: "I Know This Much Is True" year: 2020 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/i-know-this-much-is-true" fi1m_score: 63 critics_score: 62 critics_reviews: 13 published: "2026-09-17T13:17:57.028208+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T13:17:57.509727+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # I Know This Much Is True (2020) Created by Derek Cianfrance · 1h 00m · MPA TV-MA · Drama **Fi1m score: 63** · Critics 62 from 13 reviews *In a sentence:* Mark Ruffalo plays twins, and neither of them is allowed one good afternoon in six hours > Mark Ruffalo’s two performances are as fine as anything on television, and Derek Cianfrance frames them with care. Six hours of grief laid on grief wears down what it means to build; we admired it and were glad when it ended. ## Synopsis Three Rivers, Connecticut, autumn 1990. Thomas Birdsey (Mark Ruffalo), a paranoid schizophrenic, walks into the public library and cuts off his own hand to stop the coming war in the Gulf. His identical twin Dominick (also Ruffalo), a divorced housepainter, learns that Thomas has been committed to Hatch, the state’s locked forensic hospital, and cannot come out without a hearing. Dominick wants him home. In his way stand the hospital’s doctors and his own temper. Trying to help are Lisa Sheffer (Rosie O’Donnell), a social worker who is on his side more than he notices, and Dr. Patel (Archie Panjabi), a psychologist who keeps asking about their childhood. Their mother has recently died; their stepfather Ray (John Procaccino) is still alive. ## Review Derek Cianfrance, who made [*Blue Valentine*](https://film.one/film/blue-valentine) and [*The Place Beyond the Pines*](https://film.one/film/the-place-beyond-the-pines), has turned Wally Lamb’s novel into six hours of television about two brothers and everything that has ever gone wrong for them. Mark Ruffalo plays both. Dominick is a housepainter in Three Rivers, Connecticut, divorced, tight-mouthed and angry at almost everyone; Thomas is his identical twin, schizophrenic, and in the first minutes he walks into the town library and cuts off his own hand. The rest of the series is Dominick trying to get him out of the locked hospital he is sent to, while the family’s past comes open a drawer at a time. It is well made, acted about as well as television gets, and a punishment to sit through. The two Ruffalos are the reason to go. Thomas is heavier, slower and gentler, his voice pitched up, his eyes drifting to some point over your shoulder; Dominick keeps his jaw shut and cannot sit still. They share the frame, with Gabe Fazio credited as the acting double, and within minutes we had stopped looking for the join. There is a scene early on, in a visiting room at the hospital, where Thomas explains to his brother, patiently, as if to a child, why the hand had to go, and Dominick has nothing to say back. It moved us more than we expected. The ill twin is the calm one, and the well twin is the one coming apart. Around them is a cast that would carry a lesser show alone. Melissa Leo’s Ma is seen mostly in the past, soft, watchful and frightened of the wrong man. John Procaccino plays Ray, the stepfather the boys grew up afraid of, without asking for our sympathy. Rosie O’Donnell’s Lisa Sheffer, the social worker, is the one person on screen who seems to have had breakfast. Archie Panjabi’s Dr. Patel listens, which in this family is a radical act. Kathryn Hahn does a great deal with almost nothing as Dessa, the ex-wife, and Michael Greyeyes gives Ralph Drinkwater, who knew the twins as boys and now mops the hospital’s floors, a stillness that says more than his lines. Rob Huebel’s Leo supplies the only jokes. It looks like an American film from the seventies. Jody Lee Lipes shoots on grainy stock in the brown and grey light of a Connecticut autumn, handheld and close, so the faces fill the frame and the town is a blur of wet leaves behind them. Inbal Weinberg gives the hospital locked doors and thick glass, and Ma’s kitchen a look of not having been touched since the twins were boys. Kasia Walicka Maimone puts Dominick in paint-spattered work clothes he never seems to change. Harold Budd’s score is a few piano notes with long silences between them, and often there is no score at all, only a fridge humming. The trouble is what the show takes drama to be. Cianfrance and his co-writer Anya Epstein lay grief on grief: the hand, the dead mother, the divorce, the stepfather, the hospital, and then more we will not describe. Each is written with care, and each arrives as the last one lands, and by the fourth hour we noticed we were bracing rather than feeling. Dominick wants one thing from the first episode to the last, and the obstacles simply queue up. Five editors are credited, and the cutting between 1990, the brothers’ childhood and the life of their grandfather Domenico (Marcello Fonte), whose memoir Dominick has had translated, is deft moment to moment and shapeless over the run. *Blue Valentine* had two people and one marriage, and Cianfrance found everything he needed in their faces. Here he has a town’s worth of misfortune and not enough of that pressure. Four episodes might have held it; six lets it sprawl, and the grandfather’s story, which has a pull of its own, keeps stopping the one we care about. See it for Ruffalo, who is doing something we have not seen him do before, and for a supporting cast that never lets him down. Take it an episode at a time, with days between, and with someone to talk to afterwards. The certificate is 15, and it is earned in the first ten minutes. *Fi1m score 63, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics agree on two things: Mark Ruffalo’s dual performance as the twins is the reason to watch, and the series is relentlessly grim. Nearly every review calls the acting exceptional, several singling out how completely Ruffalo separates the two brothers, and the supporting cast is praised alongside him. Derek Cianfrance’s direction is generally judged handsome and controlled, with the adaptation of Wally Lamb’s novel described as sensitive and serious. The split is over whether six hours of suffering is earned. The warmer reviews find grace in the way the series handles trauma and call it devastating but rewarding. The cooler ones describe compassion fatigue, a lack of narrative tension and little wider insight. The Independent admires the writing and acting but finds it impossible to recommend, and The i Paper calls it a waste of an excellent cast. The spread is wide, from enthusiastic to outright dismissal, with the middle ground conceding the craft while questioning the point. ### Reviews we read (13) - **IndieWire**, Ben Travers (70/100, inferred): The adaptation is a soul-crushing portrait of twin brothers struggling with their painful past and worsening future. Ruffalo delivers a standout dual performance in Derek Cianfrance's unrelenting HBO limited series. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/shows/i-know-this-much-is-true-review-hbo-mark-ruffalo-1202229221/) - **The AV Club**, Ines Bellina (B-): The series is rich but unrelenting in its misery, with stellar performances from Ruffalo and the supporting cast elevating it to prestige television. It excels in heartfelt moments but sags under the weight of its self-indulgent trauma and bleak tone. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/mark-ruffalo-s-at-the-top-of-his-game-in-the-rich-but-u-1843201821) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Daniel Fienberg (70/100, inferred): Tremendous performances, especially Ruffalo's, reward viewers for enduring six hours of tragic wallowing in this unrelenting family tragedy adapted from Wally Lamb's novel. The critic praises the grounded misery and acting but notes it may not lead to much revelation. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/i-know-is-true-review-1292344/) - **The Guardian** (60/100, inferred): The series is praised for Mark Ruffalo's dual performance as the twins but criticised for its unrelenting focus on suffering that leads to compassion fatigue. It is seen as a heavy, mood-driven mood piece without much light or wider insight. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/may/11/i-know-this-much-is-true-review-mark-ruffalos-put-upon-twins) - **Variety**, Daniel D'Addario (60/100, inferred): Ruffalo's dual performance carries the series through its unremitting sadness and episodic structure, but the show struggles with credibility and pacing over six episodes, ending up as the sum of his two parts despite Cianfrance's talents. The critic singles out Ruffalo's nuanced portrayal of the twins for praise amid the grim narrative. [Read](https://variety.com/2020/tv/reviews/i-know-this-much-is-true-review-mark-ruffalo-1234596958/) - **The Independent** (40/100, inferred): The series is called sensitively written, stylishly directed and brilliantly acted, especially Ruffalo's dual role, but ultimately impossible to recommend due to its unrelenting procession of trauma and despair. It is described as television as an endurance exercise. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/i-know-this-much-is-true-episode-1-review-mark-ruffalo-hbo-sky-atlantic-a9508351.html) - **The i Paper**, Barbara Speed (★★): The critic finds the series a grim waste of an excellent cast, sinking under its own bleakness with misery piled upon misery without narrative tension or progression. Ruffalo's performance has potential but ultimately the show fails to make viewers care. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/i-know-this-much-is-true-review-a-grim-waste-of-an-excellent-cast-426841) - **The Times**, Carol Midgley (★★★★☆): The review highlights the near-perfect performances by Mark Ruffalo as the twins and the brave, intelligent script that avoids easy cheer. It compares the tone to Manchester by the Sea while noting the unrelenting misery. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/i-know-this-much-is-true-review-one-fine-actor-two-near-perfect-performances-6x7jpzjg8) - **Collider**, Jeff Sneider (4.5 stars out of 5): The critic loves the devastating yet rewarding series despite its bleakness, singling out Ruffalo's remarkable dual performance and the emotional depth of the brotherly relationship. [Read](https://collider.com/mark-ruffalo-i-know-this-much-is-true-review-hbo/) - **Consequence**, Clint Worthing (85/100, inferred): The critic praises the miniseries for its graceful handling of profound suffering and trauma, highlighting Ruffalo's chameleonic dual performance as the standout element. [Read](https://consequence.net/2020/05/tv-review-i-know-this-much-is-true/) - **Den of Geek**, Lacy Baugher (4/5): The series is technically great and features a career-defining performance from Mark Ruffalo, but its crushing parade of misery makes it a difficult and potentially poorly timed watch. Ruffalo fully inhabits both twins in a beautifully bleak prestige drama. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/i-know-this-much-is-true-review/) - **NME**, Dan Seddon (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the series a harrowing, grim analysis of family trauma that is exhausting but kept watchable by Mark Ruffalo's exceptional dual performance as the twins. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/i-know-this-much-is-true-review-mark-ruffalo-2666091) - **Digital Spy** (60/100, inferred): The miniseries is more brutal than expected, with Ruffalo smashing it in the dual roles amid a heavy mix of pain and obligation. Cianfrance's direction is impressive but often joyless, making for a grim but well-crafted experience. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a32669316/mark-ruffalo-i-know-this-much-is-true-review/) ## Details - **Created by:** Derek Cianfrance - **Creator:** Derek Cianfrance - **Director:** Derek Cianfrance - **Writer:** Derek Cianfrance, Anya Epstein - **Novel:** Wally Lamb - **Cinematography:** Jody Lee Lipes - **Editor:** Ron Patane, Malcolm Jamieson, Jim Helton, Dean Palisch, Nico Leunen - **Music:** Harold Budd - **Production design:** Inbal Weinberg - **Costume design:** Kasia Walicka Maimone - **Producer:** Jeffrey T. Bernstein - **Cast:** Mark Ruffalo as Dominick Birdsey / Thomas Birdsey; Melissa Leo as Concettina Ipolita Tempesta 'Ma' Birdsey; Rosie O'Donnell as Lisa Sheffer; Archie Panjabi as Dr. Patel; Kathryn Hahn as Dessa Constantine; John Procaccino as Ray Birdsey; Rob Huebel as Leo; Michael Greyeyes as Ralph Drinkwater - **Runtime:** 1h 00m - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA - **Release (the US):** 9 May 2020 - **Genres:** Drama - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4KBGydqlVk ## Where to watch in the US - HBO Max: streaming - Hulu: add-on, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Amazon Prime Video: buy, hd - Apple TV: buy, hd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IS, IT, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, PA, PE, PH, PL, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TH, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Manchester by the Sea* (2016), Fi1m 89: Casey Affleck’s grief, handled with the restraint this series keeps reaching for and missing. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/manchester-by-the-sea.md) - *Blue Valentine* (2010), Fi1m 82: Cianfrance with two people, one marriage and none of the sprawl. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/blue-valentine.md) - *Olive Kitteridge* (2014), Fi1m 84: Another miniseries about a hard New England life, and it remembers to be funny. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/olive-kitteridge.md) - *Rocco and His Brothers* (1960): Visconti’s Italian brothers ruin one another with love, at feature length and with more shape. - *A Woman Under the Influence* (1974): Cassavetes on mental illness inside a marriage, filmed as close and raw as Lipes gets here. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/i-know-this-much-is-true