Capone Review: 4 Ups & 5 Downs

4. The Frustratingly Surreal Storytelling

Capone focuses on the final year of Al Capone's life as his syphilitic insanity begins to take hold, and so writer-director Trank takes the opportunity to infuse his film with a multitude of surreal affectations.

This generally involves Capone hallucinating figures from his past as his sanity loosens, yet the shallow and rather corny nature of these interludes ensures they quickly become tiresome in their repetition.

The more theatrically heightened sequences feel like a watered down impression of Hardy's Bronson, and by the time Capone imagines a character cutting out their own eyeballs in the third act, viewers will likely be left rolling their own.

This isn't to say that a trippy Capone biopic depicting his final days couldn't have worked, but simply that the imagery on offer doesn't serve the story or the characters.

It too often feels like pretentious window-dressing intended to cover up for the script's general lack of interest.