Lansky

This HBO feature ought to be a treat: a biopic of Meyer Lansky, the Mob’s chief financial officer, starring Richard Dreyfuss and written by David Mamet. Dreyfuss gets to spit out some Mametian wisdom–“People dislike what they envy”–but mostly Dreyfuss and the movie are sluggish, as old Meyer dawdles through his memories. What’s left is a gallery of dark haberdashery and hard faces. Still, a tip of the fedora to the reliably fabulous Beverly d’Angelo (as a brassy Mrs. Lansky) and to Eric Roberts (Bugsy Siegel). Roberts smiles and snarls through a visage of cracked pottery, or cracked poetry.

–By Richard Corliss