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| Cast and Credits |
| Cast: |
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Clifton Collins Jr., Mark Pellegrino, Bruce Greenwood, Chris Cooper, Amy Ryan, Bob Balaban |
| Director: |
Bennett Miller |
| Writer: |
Dan Futterman |
| Rating: |
Rated R for some violent images and brief strong language. |
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Reviewed By: Brendan Cullin
Rating: 7/10
Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Truman Capote, the self-centred but still famous author whose works included, amongst others, Breakfast at Tiffany's. Capote noticed a story in The New York Times about a murder of four family members on a rural farm in Holcomb, Kansas. He decided to write an article on the murders for The New Yorker magazine, specifically on how the community was dealing with the tragedy. Unfortunately, what lay ahead for Truman Capote would consume his life for the next six years and ultimately lead to his tragic death. What started as a story in which he rather rudely points out to one of the investigating officers, "I don't care one way or the other if you catch who did this", turned into a obsession for Capote. Following the arrest of Dick Hickock (Mark Pellegrino) and Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.), Capote befriended the investigating officer Alvin Dewey (Chris Cooper), interviewed friends of the murdered Clutter family, viewed the dead bodies and eventually gained the trust of the two murderers. Capote was seen by many as helping the killers as they won one appeal after another and in a rather strange twist, Capote seemed to fall in love with murderer Perry Smith. The end result of this bizzare tale was the best-selling novel "In Cold Blood", a book which inspired a blockbuster movie, a television mini-series and numerous other TV specials. Unfortunately, the whole experience also contributed to Truman Capote's dependancy on alcohol, an addiction that would ultimately lead to his ill-fated death.
Capote is a movie that is sure to garner an Oscar nomination for Philip Seymour Hoffman. He is simply outstanding as the manipulative Truman Capote and just the fact that he was able to speak in that high-pitched, squeaky voice for the entire movie should be good enough for him to receive that nomination.
I have to admit, however, that before seeing this movie, I really had no idea who Truman Capote was and no idea about the story of "In Cold Blood". Perhaps if I did, I might have enjoyed Capote much more. Instead, I found it to be a good movie but nothing spectacular. Hoffman is definitely a highlight of the movie but I really found Capote to be similar to Million Dollar Baby - a movie that seems to have the critics raving and a movie which I enjoyed but definitely did not love. I guess one problem I had with the movie is it never lets you feel anything for any of the characters and maybe that's because you never really get to know any of them. I felt bad for the murdered family but you don't know too much about them. You really don't know too much about Capote except he was manipulative, he was obssessed with the murders, he pretty much ruined his life to write this novel, he smoked a lot and drank too much. I suppose that is a lot to know about someone but not a lot to like. You don't really learn too much about his relationship with fellow writer Harper Lee (Catherine Keener), who penned To Kill A Mockingbird, or lover Jack Dunphy (Bruce Greenwood). You never really get to know the murderers or at least feel anything for them or their situation, whether it be sympathy or anger. In fact, the only real emotion I think I felt in the movie was the anger at Capote's ignorant comment that he didn't care if they caught the killers, although there was an execution scene that was intense, as was the scene where we learn what really happened in the Clutter house.
In the end, I guess what I have to say about Capote is that it is a good movie but I certainly wouldn't put it on the list of one of my top movies of the year. It was just too cold and distant for my liking. Perhaps that feeling is appropriate for this movie that is more or less a story about the moral deterioration of Truman Capote but that still doesn't make me feel any differently about Capote. It's a good movie that certainly deserves at least a single viewing from movie fans, but in my books, not one of the best movies of the year.
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