Ray Stevenson jumped out for me in HBO’s ‘Rome’ as Kevin McKidd’s fiercely faithful fighting companion, through thick guts and thin blood, so I’m happy to report that he’s the best thing about a new drama, a biographic portrait of Cleveland mobster Danny Greene.

The best thing about the film is Ray Stevenson, who is quietly menacing and mesmerizing, and makes you believe that Danny Greene lived and breathed a life worth exploring.

The story, which sprawls over a number of years, is reined in by the script, credited to Jeremy Walters and director Jonathan Hensleigh, but that telescoping has drawbacks common to screen biographies. The key events are covered with as much dispatch as possible, which makes it challenging to keep track of all the key players, who are hustled on and off screen much too quickly to have a real sense of their importance, either to Greene or the overarching story of the Mob in Cleveland.

You can read my entire review at Red Carpet Crash.

Kill the Irishman opens today at Landmark Magnolia.