Capone

Capone
Starring Tom Hardy, Linda Cardellini, Matt Dillon, Al Sapienza
Directed by Josh Trank

Tom Hardy is one of those rare old souls in Hollywood, an actor who goes completely method in his performances akin to the likes of Marlon Brando, and isn't afraid to totally loose himself in a role under pounds of makeup and prosthetics, like Orson Welles.  For Hardy, this type of film is his wheelhouse - he's played a real-life mobster or outlaw in four different films ("Capone," "Bronson," "Lawless," and "Legend"), and when he's given the opportunity to play the most well-known mobster of all time, you'd expect something analogous to unforgettable mobster films like "Goodfellas" or "The Godfather," but instead it turns into a slow, muddled, forgettable film that missed the mark on almost every level.

Ten years after being incarcerated for tax evasion, Al Capone (Tom Hardy) is released to live in his palatial Florida home with his wife Mae (Linda Cardellini) after being deemed as a non-threat due to his neurosyphilis, which is slowly eating away at his brain.  While home, he suffers a stroke and is rendered pretty much bedridden, spending his time smoking cigars and looking out into the vast world that he created, and the mistakes he made along the way.  There's also the issue of ten million dollars that he hid somewhere, but can't remember where - and the government, which is still keeping tabs on him - want to find out.

Director Josh Trank hasn't had a good go at it in Hollywood as of late.  Although he did provide the stellar "Chronicle," he's best known for the abysmal, utterly terrible superhero reboot "Fantastic Four," and "Capone" was his next film after that unmitigated disaster.  Again, he didn't do himself any favors by providing a forgettable semi-pseudo-biopic type of film that wasn't really a biopic but rather a film that showed a man's slow slide into dementia - it just happened that the man was Al Capone.

Tom Hardy once again provides more than what the script intended, and what the film demanded, in providing the viewers with a very sympathetic, sad former shell of one of the most powerful mob bosses in American history.  For anyone who thinks being a mobster is cool, this film will surely set them straight, and it's all thanks to Hardy's truly committed performance.  He's not afraid to fully immerse himself in his role, whether it be literally crapping the bed or wandering around the grounds with a golden gun and diapers, Hardy is more than up for the task, and the only thing that really saved the film from being a total dumpster-fire.

Apart from that, the film is a tonal mess.  Trank goes back and forth in time where you don't know what's happening when, and shifts from emotional moments to sheer off-the-wall occurrences that see-saws back and forth.  It's not entirely a biopic, but it's not entirely a mobster film, nor is it entirely a look at the last moments of a famous mobster's life, nor is it a entirely a character study of a man suffering from a severe, crippling mental disorder - it tries to be all of them, but ultimately fails.

Cemented by another strong, committed performance by Tom Hardy, "Capone" barely rises above its terrible source material and makes it a watchable mess - one time.

The Score: D+