Movie Gazette

With its stellar cast, wonderful 1930s sets and snappy wardrobe, ‘The Untouchables’ is without a doubt one of the better tax evasion-based films you’ll see. Based a little on the 1950s TV series and a little on the novel co-written by the real-life bringer-inner Eliot Ness, it’s the tale of how millionaire Chicago mob-lord Al Capone was finally caught out on a loop-hole. Yup, he was a murderer, an illegal booze smuggler and an all-round bad seed – but, much like a modern-day University student, he was also a dirty stinking tax-dodger.

This lavish period piece from the hit-and-miss Brian De Palma (let’s face it, he’s dropped more than a couple of clangers in his time) pits Kevin Costner’s poker-faced treasury agent Ness against Robert De Niro’s cackling chubster Capone, and in doing so brings us an entertaining and at-times gripping tale that gives us some old fashioned goodies against old fashioned baddies. It really is that simple, but for the most part it’s also extremely effective.

“The Untouchables”, of course, are Ness’ cobbled-together band of crime-fighters, comprising ageing father figure Jim Malone (Sean Connery), police academy sharp-shooter George Stone (Andy Garcia) and bespectacled accountancy nerd Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith). They might not sound like the most intimidating of fellahs, but together their “outsider” status and commitment to the cause make them – for want of a better word – untouchable.

Performance-wise, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Casting the expressionless Costner in the key role of Ness is perhaps a little surprising, as his vacant handling of the part often belies the supposed hard-bitten determination of his character. Garcia and Smith, meanwhile, are faultless in their own jobs, but really have little to do. De Niro – seen here in the days prior to becoming a cringe-inducing self-parody – plays his part to devastating effect, but he’s only on screen for a combined running time of around 20 minutes.

It comes down, then, to being a Sean Connery film. Connery (who, interestingly enough, doesn’t share any scenes with De Niro) picked up an Oscar for his display and it’s tough to see it as anything other than the best of his career. Indeed, the Malone persona is one he seems to have been trying to recapture ever since (as an example, there are definite shades of the character in his later-to-be-seen stint as Indiana Jones’ dad in ‘The Last Crusade’). David Mamet’s screenplay gives him the best lines by a country mile and, aside from the irksome issue of the continued referral to him as “Irish” despite his blatant Scottish accent, they’re delivered with panache.

This isn’t a great film, but it is a very good one. De Palma moves the story at pace through a variety of interesting sets and backdrops, and the eventual resolution of the story is interesting to watch. It has its faults – Costner’s a little out of his depth and I found Enrico Morricone’s acclaimed soundtrack to be both intrusive and inappropriate – but it’s an undeniably entertaining way to spend a couple of hours. Highly recommended.