Not so much a biography film as it is an entertaining piece of “probable fiction,” Hoffa turns the ambitious Teamster boss into a fist-shaking, foul-mouthed folk hero — the aggressive, seemingly fearless voice of the working man who might very well have enough guts (and Mob connections) to create the most powerful union in the country. The film’s mythic, larger-than-life tone is heightened all the more by a tour de force performance by Jack Nicholson, who manages to transcend his ridiculous (and unnecessary) makeup job with his crackling, mad-bull portrayal of a man with good intentions and questionable methods. David Mamet’s mannered, tough-guy dialogue is also a lot of fun here, and the final “theory” as to what really happened to Hoffa after he mysteriously disappeared in 1975 is probably pretty close to the truth. Probably.
