Review: Capone (2020) Craps The Bed

Al Capone’s name is synonymous with words like gangster, notorious, mafia, and Chicago. Capone’s life story is full of excitement and violence, but Josh Trank’s biographical picture Capone is not.

Capone was written, directed, and edited by Josh Trank. The film stars Tom Hardy, Linda Cardellini, Matt Dillon, Noel Fisher, and Kyle MacLachlan. I have to admit I was unfamiliar with Trank.

When I first heard that Tom Hardy was going to play the gangster in a new film, I was beyond excited. Tom Hardy is an amazing actor. Hardy has starred in some of my favorite movies, including Bronson (2008), Warrior (2011), Lawless (2012), and The Revenant (2015). The thought of combining Al Capone’s criminal life with Tom Hardy’s amazing acting ability seemed like the ingredients for a hit film. That isn’t what happened in Capone.

Al Capone’s life has plenty of material for an exciting and compelling biopic. Capone rose from mob enforcer to the boss of the Chicago Outfit. During prohibition, he was a ruthless bootlegger. He was deemed responsible for the infamous Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. He ran Chicago and earned the reputation of being untouchable. Eventually, Al Capone was imprisoned for tax evasion. He served time at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary.

None of the aforementioned adventures of Al Capone proved to be exciting enough for Josh Trank to use in his movie. Instead, Trank chose to focus on his interpretation of Al Capone’s last year.

In Capone, Al Capone is no longer a notorious gangster. He is forty-seven years old. He has dementia. His brain is damaged from late-stage syphilis. He is confined to his mansion in Miami, Florida. Law enforcement and his family watches as he loses his mind, babbles about misplacing $10 million, and craps his pants.

Yeah, you read that right. Josh Trank had a $20.6 million budget, an A-list star, and the story of one of America’s most notorious organized crime figures. The best he could do was give us an Al Capone that craps his pants both in front of the FBI and while in the bed with his wife. They don’t even call Al Capone by his name. He is called Fonse.

Conclusion

Trank’s Capone fails to bring to life a compelling and entertaining story. The most action we see in the film is a diaper-wearing Tommy Gun-toting Al Capone shooting up his Florida home and a flashback of a murder.

I get what Trank was trying to do. He was trying to show us a broken Capone who lost everything, including his mind. The story of a fractured Capone could have been better told by contrasting his criminal career with his last days. There were a million ways to tell a better story with the resources that Trank had. But he failed to provide us a film that matches the notoriety of Al Capone’s actual life.

While Trank failed, Tom Hardy did a fantastic job bringing to life a crappy Al Capone. Hardy’s acting is flawless. Hardy’s time and fans could have been better served by him doing a different project. I am unsure why he decided to take the role of Al Capone in this particular project. It could be that Trank and Hardy share the same agent at Creative Artists Agency (CAA).

One review of the shooting script should have been enough for anyone to shelf this project. I was hoping to like Capone, but instead, I felt cheated. Hopefully, Hardy fans will get to see Hardy portray Al Capone, the gangster, in a different project. I know that Hardy is attached to a Warner Bros. project entitled Cicero, which focuses on Al Capone’s rise to power. I hope that Trank’s Capone doesn’t hinder Hardy’s chances to play Al Capone again.

Have you watched Capone?  Leave your rating below.