2005 / 98 Minutes / R
Reviewed by Dale Nauertz

I’ve never read a book by Truman Capote (unless, as some claim, Capote actually ghost-wrote “To Kill a Mockingbird”, which I doubt). I’ve only read his biography on Wikipedia, so I have a brief overview of his life and nothing more. Therefore, I cannot say how accurately this film captures the flavor of his life or work. I can only judge the film on its own merits.

As a film, “Capote” is quite good. It gives us a fascinating glimpse at the process of making art by allowing us a peek into the process by which Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) researched and wrote “In Cold Blood”, the book which is largely considered to be his masterpiece. Other than “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, I’ve never heard of another Capote novel. Capote reads of a grisly mass murder in a small Kansas town in the New York Times and is intrigued by it. The effete novelist decides that the crime, those who perpetrated it, and the effects of it, will be the subject of his next novel. This is a decided departure from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, the story of a self-absorbed flake, the writer who loves her, and her poor cat, who uses every opportunity to escape her flaky clutches.

Accompanied by Harper Lee (played by Catherine Keener) he journeys to the small Kansas town and chronicles the crime’s aftermath, starting with the investigation by the town’s sheriff (played by Chris Cooper). When the criminals behind this unspeakable crime are captured, Capote interviews them exhaustively. He forms a close relationship with the more shy, withdrawn of the murderers, a man named Perry Smith (well played by Clifton Collins Jr.). Does he strike up a genuine friendship with Perry or is he simply using the man and his information to shape a better novel? That is one of the main questions raised by this film. The film gets even more complex as Capote struggles to write the ending to his novel. Does he help the boys get a better lawyer and a lesser sentence or does he let them go to their deaths and ensure a better end for his novel?

“Capote” is fascinating because it explores such complex issues. It’s a dark film and a neat slice of life about a writer who has done a good job of keeping his demons at bay who suddenly finds himself face to face with them and unable to turn away. Hoffman and Collins deliver great performances here, filling these characters with dimension and life. Hoffman’s great, but he’s ALWAYS great. I’m not going to say that he’s better than he’s ever been. I will, however, say the fact that we’re not completely annoyed by his Capote speech patterns and mannerisms shows that Philip does a dynamic job. It would have been easy to be turned off by such a flamboyant performance. But Hoffman reigns it in and plays Capote as a three dimensional character rather than simply a caricature. It’s the same sort of magic Tom Hanks pulled off with his Forrest Gump character. Collins, on the other hand, gives a breakthrough performance. He humanizes the killer he plays without sacrificing any of the dark corners of the man’s personality. The only other thing I can remember seeing this guy in was “The Rules of Attraction” (where he made quite an impression as a loony drug dealer) but he’s worthy of an Oscar nomination here. He’s superb. Keener and Cooper are good, as always, but they don’t really do anything they haven’t done consistently in every film they’ve appeared in.

If not for the great performances of Hoffman and Collins, I believe “Capote”, for all its darkness and exploration of “the life of the mind” would fall apart at the seams. It’s got interesting characters and themes…but, really, the film is nothing more than a series of cocktail parties and prison visits. If not for the strength of the material, it would have gotten old fast. Even with the strength of its material, there are only so many scenes of Hoffman being the life of a literary cocktail party that a person can sit through before they want something else. It’s a good movie, to be sure, but it’s little more than an actor’s showcase. Hoffman and Collins rise to the challenge, and the others give able support, but the film still feels a little hollow. The direction is stagy, giving the film very little flair or flavor. The period costumes and details all seem dead on, but the camera work is fairly pedestrian and the editing is kinda slow in spots. The director, Bennett Miller, has only done one documentary prior to taking on this effort, and that shows in the construction and appearance of the film. I’d love to see what a more visually oriented director would have done with this material. I’m sure a more experienced director would have found a way to mirror Capote’s emotional and mental state through the composition of shots and the overall production design.

But “Capote” is still an interesting film about an interesting subject. It’s not perfect (it may even be a tad bit overrated) but it’s a good film, well worth seeing, and another testament to the strength of Hoffman’s acting prowess. It also signals Clifton Collins Jr. as a performer to watch. And it offers a fascinating meditation on what a human being can sacrifice (perhaps even his soul) in the simple act of committing words to paper.

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