Tom Hardy's Underappreciated Capone Gangster Role Leaving Netflix

On February 24, Tom Hardy’s polarizing gangster movie Capone leaves Netflix. For subscribers to the world’s biggest streaming platform, it’s unclear when it will be accessible again in the future.

Showcasing one of Hardy’s most ambitious character studies, Capone is an underrated crime biopic that depicts the final year of the legendary Chicago gangster’s life. Freed from prison, and afflicted with rapidly advancing dementia brought on by untreated syphilis, Al Capone was an unpredictable law unto himself within the confines of his Florida mansion.

While it may not be a movie that’s defined Tom Hardy’s career as such, Capone is something of an underappreciated hidden gem. Its macabre depiction of a real-life villain in a downward spiral towards death has inevitably divided both critics and fans, but there’s no denying that Hardy’s portrayal of Al Capone is a mesmerizing work of character acting.

The movie also shows us a very different side to the gangster’s life from the one we’re used to seeing onscreen. We see Capone surrounded by his personal family as well as his criminal associates, including his wife, Mae. She arguably does a better job of keeping him in check than any police force or mob rival ever managed to.

Capone Is Tom Hardy’s Most Underrated Gangster Role

Because it’s never received the attention or plaudits of Tom Hardy’s very best movies, Capone’s wonderfully dynamic lead performance doesn’t get anything like the recognition it deserves. Hardy is roundly praised for his portrayal of other screen gangsters, whether it’s Alfie Solomons in Peaky Blinders, or Forrest Bondurant in Lawless.

His dual role as both Kray twins in the 2015 movie Legend received far more publicity than his version of Al Capone ever did, despite the two performances being relatively similar in many ways. Overall, Capone is surely the most underrated characterization of a gangster that Hardy has undertaken in his career so far.

His iteration of the mob boss known as “Scarface” covers a wide range of entertaining elements, from slapstick comedy to all-out horror. Tom Hardy’s Al Capone is quite unlike anything you will have seen before, both from the actor and in relation to the real-life gangster.

How Capone Was Received & How Much It Made

Although Capone is never going to be ranked as one of the best gangster movies of the 21st century, it’s still well worth a watch. The film deserves far better than the mixed reception it received from reviewers upon its release, which has left it with a 40% aggregate critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

However, this rating isn’t really surprising, given how boldly experimental and off-the-wall Capone is at its best. The most common complaint about the movie is its inconsistent tone, but this inconsistency is the whole point. Its titular protagonist had many different faces, and Tom Hardy’s unhinged depiction of him helps to expose them all to us.

Regardless of the mixed critical response it received, Capone has proven popular with audiences, and ranked highly in premium video-on-demand platforms when it was first released for home viewing. The movie made $2.5 million from its first 10 days of premium streams.

On the other hand, its brief theatrical run was hit by the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning it grossed under $1 million at the box office. Capone is still making up the cost of a $20 million production budget, but its run on Netflix will have gone a long way towards balancing the books.