Capote (film)
From AwardAnnals
| Film: | Capote |
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| Director: | Bennett Miller |
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| Distributor: | Sony Pictures |
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Reviews
Amazon.com
Bolstered by an Oscar®-caliber performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman in the title role, Capote ranked highly among the best films of 2005. Written by actor/screenwriter Dan Futterman and based on selected chapters from the biography by Gerald Clarke, this mercilessly perceptive drama shows how Truman Capote brought about his own self-destruction in the course of writing In Cold Blood, the “nonfiction novel” that was immediately acclaimed as a literary milestone. After learning of brutal killings in rural Holcomb, Kansas, in November 1959, Capote gained the confidence of captured killers Perry Smith (Clifton Collins, Jr.) and Dick Hickock (Mark Pellegrino) in an effort to tell their story, but he ultimately sacrificed his soul in the process of writing his greatest book. Hoffman transcends mere mimicry to create an utterly authentic, psychologically tormented portrait of an insincere artist who was not above lying and manipulation to get what he needed. Bennett Miller’s intimate direction focuses on the consequences of Capote’s literary ambition, tempered by an equally fine performance by Catherine Keener as Harper Lee, Capote’s friend and the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, who served as Capote’s quiet voice of conscience. Spanning the seven-year period between the Kansas murders and the publication of In Cold Blood in 1966, Capote reveals the many faces of a writer who grew too close to his subjects, losing his moral compass as they were fitted with a hangman’s noose. —Jeff Shannon
Barnes and Noble
Philip Seymour Hoffman capped the 2006 awards season with a well-deserved Academy Award win for his remarkable portrayal of writer Truman Capote in this mesmerizing drama, one of the previous year’s best movies. Set in the period during which Capote—the celebrated author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s—researched and wrote his chilling account of a Kansas family’s brutal murder by “thrill killers” Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, the film paints an unflattering picture of its subject, who for many years was an A-list party guest, raconteur, bon vivant, and darling of New York’s literary set. Dan Futterman’s screenplay doesn’t attempt to obscure the fact that Capone ruthlessly exploited and manipulated everyone around him—including Smith, whom he befriended and pretended to represent to the outside world—to get the story he knew would be his crowning achievement. That even included his loyal friend Harper Lee (Catherine Keener) and his patient lover Jack Dunphy (Bruce Greenwood), who sacrificed much to help Truman achieve his goal. Although the burly Hoffman isn’t at all physically suited to play the diminutive author, he so fully submerges himself into the role that he is able to convey Capote’s essence with uncanny accuracy. He nails the superficial characteristics—mincing speech, fluttery hand gestures, and a supercilious manner—but also gets under the writer’s skin, revealing the profound self-loathing and deep-rooted insecurity that compelled Capote to dismiss or reject those who cared about him most. Hoffman’s performance would be a thing worth marveling at even if it appeared in a mediocre motion picture; that it further distinguishes such a spellbinding drama makes it all the more irresistible. Ed Hulse
