Mamet + DePalma = Bad Match

Rating: 5/10 (10 March 2005)

Historical inaccuracies aside, Mamet and DePalma's conception of Capone vs. Ness and the Prohibition Era is mechanical and silly. Mamet's script is full of tired gimmickry (Malone's St. Jude necklace being passed on, Ness coming to terms with the violence and lawlessness within him, using children in danger as a means of upping the emotional ante), and his clipped, hit-the-beats style of writing does not mesh well with DePalma's outlandish, tongue-in-cheek sensuality. (Stone's script for Scarface matches perfectly with that style.) The result is a film with wildly uneven tones: it's both darkly (perhaps unintentionally)comic and moralistic in a square way. Mamet portrays Ness as a naive bore (Costner certainly plays him that way), and allows Connery's Malone (a good performance) to take over the film. DeNiro's scenes as Capone seem disconnected from the rest of the film, and provide no more than a surface portrayal of the infamous gangster. On the plus side, the sets, costumes, cinematography, and supporting actors are all excellent, and DePalma manages to give a charge to a few of the set pieces. The Ennio Morricone score is another highlight and among the best of the maestro's distinguished career. Overall, it's a simplified, dime-store novel approach that isn't even as fun as the TV series that preceded it. The real story deserves better.