Capone

This movie has a very low IMDb rating mainly because many viewers wanted this to be a different movie, perhaps one of Al Capone's whole life. But it isn't, it focuses on the very last year or so when he was at his Florida mansion, his mind mostly childlike, his memory poor, his health failing, and his phobias in full display.

Al Capone's life of crime is pretty well known by anyone who pays attention, and his imprisonment was for tax evasion, that was the only easy way to get a conviction. But in prison his mental faculties were progressively eroded by neurosyphilis, something he never recovered from.

No one really knows what was going on in Capone's head during his last year or so but this script if nothing else shows the chaos that surely must have been present. Towards that goal, to show that this career criminal had a hell on Earth towards the end, it is a well-made movie. I watched it streaming on the Kanopy site via my public library's subscription.

Although set in Florida it was filmed in Louisiana, mostly Covington, New Orleans, and surrounding areas.

Summary: The movie centers on the final year before Al Capone's death. He suffers from dementia caused by advanced neurosyphilis.

While his wife, brother and sister in law, son, and old friends try to care for him, his mind wanders back and forth from his current state to haunting memories of his gangster past.

The setting, hair, makeup, costumes are fantastic. The movie takes place in a small universe - Capone's Florida estate. There are scenes outside of his estate, but largely it's focused on Capone and his family trying to care for his ailing health. This is because, in the final year of his life, his entire world IS the estate.

His hallucinations are largely due to dementia and a second stroke suffered during the movie. I think this is where audience members take issue with the movie. Some have criticized the movie as disjointed - but that's because the mind of a person with dementia is disjointed. Likewise, when the name Capone is mentioned, it almost always conjures up the image of Capone in his young years - a tough, shrewd, criminal that loved to indulge in parties, alcohol, and women, and was the genius mastermind behind numerous robberies and schemes.

Instead, what is presented to the audience is a disgusting, weak, demented old man who sh.ts the bed and pisses himself. His eyes are perpetually bloodshot, most of the time he's only capable of grunting or growling a few words, he walks with a doddering stumble, and his skin looks like death warmed over. These are actually symptoms of a person suffering from a neurodegenerative disease. Tom Hardy does an excellent job at portraying Capone in this manner. If you're familiar with caring for a person with dementia or mental decline, you would find his look and behavior eerily realistic. This also makes his hallucination/flashback scenes more realistic - and thus, why they have an element of "horror" to them.

It is also a very slow movie. It's anticlimactic. That is a valid criticism. It was a good watch, but I'll never watch it again. I got the main take away that Al Capone had a miserable few years at the end of his life.

Five stars only because of Tom Hardy's performance. Waste of time.

I admired the film more than I enjoyed it, but it kept my interest throughout despite being a bit of slog at times. It's fascinating. The title 'Capone' invokes the expectation that this was a biopic of the famous gangster, but this isn't that at all. This is something very different, and very deliberately so, but due to the title it's going to confuse and disappoint most people (which is why Trank hated that he had to change it from the original title 'Fonzo' for marketing reasons). There's hardly a reference for this kind of film; it's not a traditional narrative in any sense.

What I keep thinking about is how even most gangster films who pretend to de-glamorize criminals and their lifestyle fail; it's the same problem with the "anti-" war movie that still depicts a rousing, exciting adventure next to the misery and the atrocities and thus defeats its own purpose. Rare is the war or gangster film that actually achieves to show the underlying emptiness; the ugly, banal, vulgar and sad reality that ultimately is what most lives of violence lead towards until the haunting memories are the only thing that remains.

The reason for that is obvious: nobody would watch that kind of film because it would be too bleak. But 'Capone' manages that rare feat: it's bleak - but not bleak enough to turn you off, and it's even often entertaining (in terms of its performances, the fantastic score, the beautiful cinematography). But even though this probably wasn't the film's intention, it still manages to be the ultimate deconstruction of the gangster as an "icon" - more so even than Scorsese's 'Irishman' (though it's nowhere near as good a film).

I liked Capone; it's weird (and I guess you shouldn't watch it unless you like profoundly weird little arthouse films) but this is definitely not a badly made film. I hope Trank continues on this path and makes more strange, personal films - although perhaps of the kind that are a little more accessible.

I love gangster movies and I am a big fan of Tom Hardy, ok? So I had every reason in the universe to anticipate this movie. Aaand as you can see from my rating I didn't like it. Main reason? It was boring! It was aimless and boring!

I 'm only writing this review to praise Tom Hardy who (as per usual) gave his 100% and disappeared in the role of Capone. He's the brightest star in a pile of... well, you get it.

Check this movie for his performance if you have patience. If not... I don't know... go watch Boardwalk Empire? \_(0.0)_/