Capone

Plot

In 1946, Alphonse (“Phonz”) Capone lives out his final year of his life, inflicted with debilitating neuro-syphilis and dementia. His family are finding that their finances are strapped, as all the money is gone, but the FBI, are still confident that there is $10m hidden somewhere.

Direction

Not a bad direction effort by Josh Trank, but due to a tight budget of $20m, there is very little (big?) events – focusing more on character and narrative.

Cast/Characters

Tom Hardy plays Capone, whose family and friends refer to as Phonz (we do not call him Al). I found his portrayal poor. He puts on an almost incomprehensible at times accent that was his own design.

Linda Cardellini plays his long suffering wife Mae, who stuck with him through all his days and illness. She is solid in these types of films, having played in period films like The Founder, and also playing the spouse to the protagonist in Greenbook.

Matt Dillon plays Johnny, a play on the real life Johnny Torrio. This character is written nonsensical. He is called by Mae to come see Phonz, but then it is revealed that he is a hallucination.

Kyle MacLachlan plays his primary doctor, who is being persuaded by the FBI to help them locate the $10m

Breakdown

The period film/biography element seems to be sound enough, and for the most parts it does feel like these characters are living in the era.

It is the narrative that relies heavily on empathy towards Capone that it gets wrong. While he may have done some good, he was still at the heart of it “allegedly” not a good person.

There are several moments that are added to pad the runtime, these include several silly hallucinations (the mid film including the Luis Armstrong concert goes for over 10 minutes, and the final Tommy Gun hallucination goes on for too long too. These seem to be only added to increase his fractured state of mind which we already know.

The FBI Agent Crawford questioning Capone at the end of the film is jarring, and once again just thrown in for no real reason other than to pad the runtime, and to add to the audiences sympathy for Phonz.

The addition of the fictional son Tony takes away from his actual son “Junior”. That this person didn’t exist, and only serves as another moment in Tranks “artistic license” is bizarre. Even Mae’s aforementioned phone call to Johnny (and then their fishing trip) could all just be a figment of his failing memory.

Overall

With a poor narrative, overuse of hallucinations, oddly introduced conflict in Phonz’s relationships with his son and the FBI, make this a hard watch.

Hardy’s odd performance makes it even worse. As the great Kirk Lazzarus says, “Never go full R*****”

The only up is Cardellini as Mae.

This is a not recommend.

1.5/5

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