Capone
vertigoCapone is director Josh Trank’s third directing effort after his well-received bow with Chronicle and his much-reviled sophomore effort Fantastic Four. Capone is a mature and well-crafted feature with a strong central performance from lead Tom Hardy in a film that explores the fragility, darkness and madness of a monster.
More akin to Chronicle regarding themes and exploration of human character, Josh Trank takes an iconic and indestructible monster with Capone himself and showcases an honest, and often dark sentiment of the once untouchable mobster. So much so in fact, that the iconic iconography of infamous performances such as Robert De Niro's and Stephen Graham's portrayals in The Untouchables and Boardwalk Empire, respectively are only seen in fleeting glimpses and shadows of a life once lived.
Trank directs with a layered maturity, and while darkness is present not only through the history of the Caponecharacter, and the physical and phycological illness that grows within, the director incorporates murmurs of hope and regret. Namely through Linda Cardellini's character and the family inclusion: a noticeable element that superbly showcases the descent into Capone's illness via the passing of time that is both subtle yet narratively engaging.
Nevertheless, it is the leading performance of Tom Hardy as the titular character that glues this all together. It is important to note that this is a performance of a character that the audience has not quite seen. It is a subverted take on the last few years of said character, and with that, the performance is one that takes a dear and eye-opening precedent in exploring more internally gritty and physical ailments. It is a performance that Hardy optimises mostly through physical and visual manifestation. An attribute that has been key and prevalent throughout his career, and to that extent is not necessarily new work for the actor. Yet, Hardy brings a welcomed humanisation and pitiful contextual compassion to a monster that hasn't been touched upon to this degree.
There are moments here in which Hardy's Capone dwells in the inescapable prison of dementia and his body giving up. Its explored and examined to an eye-opening degree, although offers problems in which will be touched upon a little later, throughout the film Hardy offers a vessel to once again strut his stuff and convict on a multifaceted performance. Speaking of the levels of mature and progression/exploration of the likes of dementia, Trank explores these elements with a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, seeing Capone have night tremors and soiling himself amid a recurring repressed life offers a brutal and compelling subverted expectation of said character. However, on the other side of that argument, it becomes a fragile line between poignant heartbreak and farcical tone-deaf unintentional comedy, and more often than not it is the latter of which Trank's film falls into.
While many will see what Trank is trying to explore here, it is undoubtedly just the mere inclusion of said problems in which the audience will grasp upon and devour. Issues in which Trank somewhat doubles down on with his choice of direction and choice of tone. A noticeable moment between Capone, a lawyer and detectives leads to farce when Capone has one of his episodes, and another poorly crafted and outlandish dream sequence does little to spur the imagination in all its ridiculous derivative usage. All that being said, Trank is back on the right path with no limitation of studio heads and a direction he sees fit to explore, but the irony here is that a little interference and producer quality may have saved both the tone and execution from underwhelming the final product.
