Review: The Material in HBO's "I Know This Much Is True" is Dark and the Performances are Luminous

Mark Ruffalo executive produces and stars in HBO's six-part miniseries "I Know This Much is True."

Adapted from one of Wally Lamb's song-name-titled novels, the relentlessly dark saga follows identical twin brothers (both played by Ruffalo) through their "small, stifling, suffocating world," under the direction of co-writer Derek Cianfrance.

Older brother Thomas Birdsey is chubby, schizophrenic, and religious, born on December 31, 1949. Younger (by six minutes) twin Dominick was born on January 1, 1950; he wears a goatee and is a housepainter, evidenced by white paint on his cuticles, seen as he chain-smokes throughout.

The series navigates the family drama in the dreary, frequently rainy, and fictional town of Three Rivers, Connecticut, through flashbacks, from elementary school and a longtime relationship with the Native American Drinkwater twins, through college at UConn, and a rough life in the house that the Birdsey's Sicilian grandfather built by hand. His wish upon emigrating in 1913 was that "one day I'd have enough power and money to spit in the faces of those who have humiliated me."

Aptly-named grandpa Tempesta's (Simone Coppo) true character is revealed in his memoir, gifted to Dominick by his ma (Melissa Leo). and translated from Italian by unstable scholar Nedra (Juliette Lewis). The boys' stepfather, Ray (John Procaccino), was also rough, causing Dom to remember "I wished my stepfather dead so often it was almost a hobby."

"Fucked up and fatherless" Dominick wades through the "omert� mafia bullshit," struggles against the inheritance of "the sins of the father are visited on the son." The material is dark, yet the performances are luminous. Kathryn Hahn is engaging as Dom's college sweetheart Dessa, and Archie Panjabi is intense yet sympathetic as therapist Dr. Patel. Rosie O'Donnell turns in a striking performance as social worker Lisa. Harold Budd's excellent, atmospheric score is joined by '90s period music from Wham, Tom Tom Club, Joe Jackson, The Cars, and - appropriately - Faith No More.