Capone – A Biographical Crime Drama Misfire (Early Review)

Famed gangster Alphonse Capone has been the subject of countless forms of the media over the years. The majority of audiences more or less know his story, creating less and less subject matter to tap into. Fortunately, many may not know the period near the end of Capone’s life so here is Capone, a film that tackles those latter years and it certainly wasn’t pretty. Meanwhile, writer/director Josh Trank notoriously hit a snag after the release of 2015’s controversial and poorly-received Fantastic Four reboot. Serving as the writer, producer, director, and editor of this one, he’s definitely all in for what clearly was a passion project. While the passion was there, not much of it worked, all riding on the film’s star Tom Hardy and his arguably cartoonish accent as Capone for better or worse. Those who can get behind the accent will be treated to a mediocre drama, however, anyone else will be tested.

As mentioned, Capone follows Capone over the last year of his life, following a decade of imprisonment, suffering from dementia and other issues while living in a Florida estate with his wife Mae (Cardellini) under the watchful eye of the FBI who were not yet done with him. Suffice it to say that tending to this Capone was not easy but as the film went on, there would be more to the story. Though he did have several health problems which weren’t always easy to watch, they were only the tip of the iceberg. Essentially retired from his life of crime afforded Capone time to reflect. This time arguably did not do him any favors as it led him to reflect about his brutal past and past regrets. However, Capone’s underlying dementia threw a wrench into the proceedings and made it tougher to determine what was real and what wasn’t. Capone’s tenuous mental state and his many delusions ultimately proved to not be the best ability to present what was surely intended to be some sort of tragic redemption angle as it came off as one big, hard to follow mess.

That fact alone makes Capone a chore to watch as it is nearly impossible to invest in the plot or the characters in any kind of way as that accent takes over and distracts from anything else the film may or may not offer which happened to be not much. With a film called Capone, don’t expect any deep characters as this film was Capone or nothing. As far as it was concerned, Capone was a ticking time bomb and most viewers will find themselves simply waiting for an explosion. That unfortunately was pretty much all that the film had to offer. Though the editing was weird in a few scenes, at least the journey along the way looked good from the production design, to the costumes, to Hardy’s makeup to make him sort of look like Capone, and some decent cinematography. This was the best part of the film almost by default.

In terms of the acting, Capone was decent to non-existent. As mentioned, Hardy’s comical, cringey accent will be a challenge for some viewers as his performance was mostly just that and a series of grunts and other inaudible yelling but his screen presence is undeniable and will undoubtedly pull in some viewers regardless of everything else. Meanwhile, Cardellini as Mae Capone seemingly did not want to be there, showing little chemistry with Hardy. The same was the case for Dillon and Kyle MacLachlan also were in and out in minor roles as a man named Johnny and Dr. Karlock, Capone’s doctor.

At the end of the day, despite the passion Capone is a misfire that not even Tom Hardy can save.

*still courtesy of Vertical Entertainment*

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.