Movie Review: Capote

Stars (Out of 10): 9

One Word Summary: Subtle

Movie Details: MPAA RATING: R for some violent images and brief strong language Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Clifton Collins Jr., Chris Cooper, Bruce Greenwood, Bob Balaban, Amy Ryan, and Mark Pellegrino GENRE(S): Drama   WRITTEN BY: Dan Futterman Gerald Clarke (book)   DIRECTED BY: Bennett Miller   RELEASE DATE: Theatrical: September 30, 2005  RUNNING TIME: 98 minutes   Relevant Sites: IMDB Official Movie Website Watch The Movie Trailers Shopping: Shop Amazon for items related to this movie. Shop for movie posters at AllPosters

"Capote" Review:

After reading of the brutal November 15, 1959 murder of a family of four in Holcomb, Kansas, Truman Capote heads west to research his next story. The Alabama-born New York socialite and author of Breakfast at Tiffany's charms the locals with stories of fame and the big city, and he quickly realizes that this won't be just an article in the New Yorker as he'd planned but his next novel and his best to date. With friend and research assistant Harper Lee (author of To Kill a Mockingbird) in tow, Truman befriends everyone involved with the case, eventually even the killers. Capote wonders if he's even in love with one of the killers, Perry Smith. Their friendship is a unique one though, because the entire time Capote is depending on their execution to furnish the ending for his book.

Capote is an absolutely tremendous biopic about a man whose greatest work was also his downfall. Truman Capote was no doubt a self-serving man, but his story is so fascinating because he truly did care about these killers… just not as much as he cared about his story. Capote admits at one point in the film that if they received one more stay of execution that it would destroy him, but after they are finally killed Truman tells Harper Lee, whom he's grown apart from over the course of the movie, that he's devastated. At one point Lee asks him, 'Do you hold him in esteem, Truman?” Truman responds, 'Well, he's a gold mine.”

First time screenwriter Dan Futterman reveals a character of utter contradictions; he loves Perry Smith but will exploit him till his death. As the film progresses we witness his moral disintegration, and though we despise him as a person, we can't help but feel some sympathy for him as well. As Truman says, 'It's like Perry and I grew up in the same house, and one day he went out the back door and I went out the front.”

In Capote, Philip Seymour Hoffman, who's been always the bridesmaid never the bride, delivers the performance of his career. Like Jamie Foxx of 2004's Ray, Hoffman's performance isn't an impression of the man's voice or mannerisms; he honestly seems to enter the skin of Truman Capote for the film's 98 minute run time. Though his character is an eccentric in the truest sense of the word, Hoffman's performance is subtle and quiet.

Bennett Miller, in his feature film directorial debut, delivers a stark, no frills character study. He doesn't toy with the look of the film, though the cinematography and editing are spectacular (the murder and execution scenes are especially memorable), and he doesn't make the mistake of editorializing about the death penalty. 'I don't care one way or the other if you catch who did this,” says Capote to the agent investigating the crime, and Miller takes the same journalistic approach to the film. There is no final judgment on the killers or Capote, though the Smith and Hickock are hanged and Capote later dies of alcoholism; Miller allows the audience to judge these men independently, showing their good and evil sides.

The Bottom Line is that Capote is tremendous. Futterman and Miller's character study is morbidly consuming, and Catherine Keener and Philip Seymour Hoffman deliver subtle, riveting performances each worthy of Oscar-recognition.