Capone (2020)

Writer/director Josh Trank has had some serious ups and downs in his filmmaking career. His debut was the impressive Chronicle, one of my favourite films of the year it was released, which turned him into a bit of a media darling. He followed it up with the Fantastic Four reboot no one liked (which wasn't as bad as everyone said but also wasn't great). And many years later he returns with this biopic of Al Capone, one of those films built around a singular performance, the kind that errs on the side of taking up as much screen space as possible.

Capone is set in the last year of the famous gangster's life. He has already served his time and his health is declining. His mind is going, and he starts to see the people he killed. The film doesn't explore his life as a gangster or his crimes. It's about an old man coming to terms with who he is or who he was. And as he looses his grip on reality his visions become more intense and he becomes farther removed from the real people in his life. And he remembers he has ten million dollars stashed away somewhere but can't remember where. At the same time he lives in his mansion with his family, going on fishing trips and hosting private movie screenings, with access to doctors and all he needs to die comfortably. All he has to reckon with is the ghosts he imagines.

The film struggles with this mission to get us invested in his subject, to struggle alongside his loss and decline. But it never gives us a reason. He remains an unpleasant bastard and he never quite seems to truly reckon with his past. Instead he is confronted with generalized violence that never quite implicates him in his role. Despite Hardy giving it everything he's got, I never truly cared about Capone or his struggles.

Hardy has never been one to shy away from big roles and his Al Capone is a big one. He goes full on physical transformation, heavy vocal acrobatics, and he chomps his cigar like he chomps the scenery. Capone, the person, is larger than life, and Trank and Hardy want you to know it. But where in there is the human being? I'm not sure I saw it. The film seems to present a caricature of a man but doesn't set him in a story where that would feel appropriate.

Linda Cardellini seems more grounded in this movie as his suffering wife. She is quietly strong and complicated, fully aware of who they were and working to hold her family together. Where Hardy is over the top, Cardellini is subtle and reserved. As he continues his decline the film had a chance to explore something that might have garnered some sympathy for this devil but the film never quite effectively gets there. There is a scene where his son tries to reach out to his dad who doens't have the capacity to understand who he is and it is rather ineffectual.

Part of the problem with Capone is there isn't much going on. While we could have seen Capone struggling with his demons, the film never gets there either. Instead it seems focused on the missing millions, a McGuffin which doesn't lead us to anything satisfying. He sees people who he may or may not have killed but the film never truly has him reckon with that. It's like an idea that just never materializes. There is a lot of stuff in Capone which just never comes to fruition. Instead it is just one big performance that's more showman than study of a character.

Capone
Starring: Tom Hardy, Linda Cardellini, Jack Lowden, Matt Dillon, Noel Fisher, Kyle McLachlan
Writer/Director: Josh Trank