Richard “The Iceman” Kuklinski was one of the mob’s most deadly assassins for decades and also a surprisingly dedicated family man. That’s a fairly common gangster story that has been told in films stretching all the way back to The Godfather. Yet, there’s something about the particularly extreme dichotomy in Kuklinski’s life that makes him a fascinating character. No one was even sure of how many people Kuklinski had killed when he died in prison in 2006 serving out five consecutive life sentences and how he managed to keep that a secret from his family is an even greater mystery. That’s the subject of director Ariel Vromen’s latest film that premiered at TIF this year and while the movie does follow the standard mob movie tropes perhaps a little too slavishly, the central performance from consistently brilliant character actor Michael Shannon makes the whole experience more than worthwhile.

Even before his mass murdering ways, Kuklinski was someone who had no problem living a double life. When he met and seduced his wife Deborah (Winona Ryder), he claimed to do sound for children’s cartoons, when he actually worked as an editor in porn. Back then the delightful porn industry was owned and operated by the mob, so when a shipping mishap led to a confrontation with the boss, Kuklinski found himself face to face with gangster Roy DeMeo (Ray Liotta). He didn’t back down and DeMeo was so impressed by the quiet pornographer’s steely ways that he gave Kuklinski a chance to join the crew by murdering a homeless man in the middle of the street on a sunny day. The job was carried out without complaint and soon Kuklinski was DeMeo’s go to button man whenever an associate or enemy needed to be taken care of.

Cash suddenly flowed freely into Kuklinski’s house and he happily raised three daughters at night while shooting and chopping people up during the day. Eventually Kuklinski needed to part ways with DeMeo and found himself joining up with assassin for hire Robert “Mister Softee” Pronge (Chris Evans). Pronge got the name for driving around in an ice cream truck between jobs and soon Kuklinski was his apprentice. They’d murder people for the highest bidder and freeze the bodies in the ice cream truck for weeks so that when they were discovered, the time of death could never be accurately determined. Inevitably Kuklinski and Pronge worked jobs that went against Kuklinski’s old boss and when you piss off a gangster, the story only ends one of two ways. For Kuklinski, that meant a foolish streak of murders to try and cover his tracks and an eventual prison sentence. It was only when convicted that his family learned where Daddy went all day.

The plot is intriguing because Kuklinski’s life story is so bizarre, but at the same time the life of all gangsters is depressingly similar, so the movie can be a little predictable as Vromen works through the story in a fairly conventional manner. Thankfully that hardly kills the movie, just lessons it’s ultimate impact slightly. Sequences where Kuklinski brutally takes out a man for hire and then goes home to take his children roller skating have a peculiar, almost surreal power. Plus, all of the familiar elements are more than made up for by the power of the cast. Liotta is a veteran at this sort of thing with one of the mob movie masterpieces (Goodfellas) forever tied to his name. He knows his job and does it well, though his skill at been evil through a smile is sadly never used. Ryder is strong enough as the pained wife to make you wish that she would work so often, while Evans hides his matinee idol Captain America looks under a mountain of 70s locks and facial hair that make him unrecognizable and allow him to do some more complex character work than he’s normally allowed to trot out in blockbusters. Evans is also the center of the film’s wicked streak of dark comedy that prevents the material from ever becoming too overbearing.

Of course, no matter how good anyone in the cast is, they are all inevitably over shadowed by Michael Shannon. The Take Shelter star with sunken eyes and an imposing lanky figure has bee making a case for himself as one of the best character actors of his generation. Kuklinski is a perfect role for him to dig into. Like a Pixies song, Shannon has a knack for loud-quiet-loud-quiet spurts of insanity within a soft-spoken figure. That’s ideal for The Iceman, who has to appear gentle with his family and vicious when holding a gun or whatever household object he plans to turn into a lethal weapon that day. Shannon succeeds in making the character just sympathetic enough in the early going to force the audience on his side when the bloodshed starts and once his world starts crumbling, he does the stressed out insanity thing as good as any actor. Sure, it all ends up serving another “crime doesn’t pay” tale that doesn’t exactly break new ground, but that just comes with the territory. Mob movies might be similar, but all it takes is one searing performance like Shannon delivers here to elevate them above the pack. Michael Shannon will win an Oscar one day. It probably won’t be for The Iceman, but at the very least adding this movie to his resume is going to help his ever-building cause.

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Phil Brown writes about film for Toronto Standard.