HOFFMAN SHOWS WHAT IT COST

CAPOTE
Directed by Bennett Miller; written by Dan Futterman, based on Gerald Clarke’s book Capote; cinematography by Adam Kimmel; edited by Christopher Tellefsen; music by Mychael Danna; production design by Jess Gonchor; set decoration by Maryam Decter and Scott Rossell; costume design by Kasia Walicka-Maimone
With: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Chris Cooper, Bob Balaban, Clifton Collins Jr., Mark Pellegrino, Amy Ryan, and Bruce Greenwood. Rated R for some violent images and brief strong language. Running time: 98 minutes



Reviewed by Joel Johnson

Truman Capote was a prolific writer who produced novels, novellas, short stories, plays, and screenplays. Several of these have found their way onto either the small or big screen. Some have had repeat visits, and some have won awards. Audrey Hepburn received one of five Oscar nominations earned by the 1961 adaptation of Capote’s novel Breakfast at Tiffany’s, for which Henry Mancini won one for the music score and shared another with Johnny Mercer for best song “Moon River.” Today Truman Capote is best known for his alcohol-fueled flamboyant effeminacy and for one book. That book has the chilling title In Cold Blood.

While the film title Capote might suggest a more sweeping treatment of his life, the film focuses on his life during the time that he was working on In Cold Blood. Seeing what went into creating this helps explain why this is his most acclaimed work and why he was never able to finish any other writing afterward. It made him materially rich, yet robbed him, at age forty-two, of his most precious talent—the ability to write. An entertaining raconteur when the film commences in 1959, Capote used drawling effeminacy to disarm his listeners, setting them up for his clever wit. In the years following the publication of In Cold Blood in 1966, he displayed a more progressively over-the-top effeminacy, and his trademark high-pitched drawl began to spew venom. He became generally annoying—not a good thing for one trading on one’s own personality—and probably inspired even more intense dislike from the targets of his vituperations.

While Capote is not quite a one-man show, the success of the film demands that the actor playing Truman Capote must match or at least closely approximate the memories that audience members will have for the way he spoke, the way he walked, and the gestures that he used. Philip Seymour Hoffman nails these in playing Truman Capote. This is a remarkable achievement simply because Hoffman dwarfs the diminutive Capote. Yet his performance is not simply a ninety-eight-minute impersonation. Hoffman manages to capture the character’s highs and lows as Capote progresses from an enthusiastic writer coming to Kansas from New York City to do a story for The New Yorker magazine to being a reluctant witness to the executions of Perry Smith and Richard Hickock. Along the way we see how he put his writing ahead of everything—his lover, his friends, and, most damaging of all, his own integrity. Hoffman’s portrayal allows us to see how his self is eroded by each compromise of his character. It is a fantastic performance and—like David Strathairn’s portrayal of Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck.—has garnered lots of Oscar buzz. If anything, it should be noted that Hoffman’s performance is even more central to this film than Strathairn’s is to Good Night, and Good Luck. Hoffman must show a broader emotional palette during Capote’s evolution as an individual, while Strathairn’s Murrow must show his consistent strength and integrity.

This film is interesting because it makes the creative process a much more integral part of the story. Frequently, films about writers or artists may concentrate on the more colorful incidents in the central character’s personal life. The audience may learn a lot about the person’s lovers, his or her tempestuous relationships, and their propensity to devolve into drunken brawls. The creative process of writing, painting, or whatever other artistic endeavor makes the person noteworthy may be shown either in passing or not at all. Here we see Truman Capote interviewing the two killers who are his book’s subjects, gathering a variety of information—often deceitfully—and then typing his manuscript. In this film we learn little more about Truman’s lover (Bruce Greenwood) other than that he is named Jack and has to endure long absences as Truman spends weeks and months in Kansas. However, William Shawn’s (Bob Balaban) statements that Capote has developed a new form of writing—the nonfiction novel—will have to be judged by readers and not filmgoers. Film still has limits on evaluating this art form.

The production design, art direction, and set decoration team have done an excellent job in capturing the late 1950s and early 1960s period. They convincingly show both the sophisticated New York City milieu that Truman called home and the Kansas small town where the murder of the Clutter family, the central event in both his book and this film, took place.

The cast is full of character roles and bit parts, most of which are effectively and occasionally delightfully rendered. No one, however, is able to make an impression that serves as a counterweight to Hoffman’s Capote—not Catherine Keener’s Nelle Harper Lee (author of To Kill a Mockingbird under the pen name Harper Lee) nor Chris Cooper’s Kansas Bureau of Investigation Detective Alvin Dewey nor Clifton Collins Jr.’s killer Perry Smith, with whom Capote claimed a close affinity. None can hold the stage with Hoffman. This may be the film’s primary failing because the audience lacks a character for whom to root. Keener may come the closest, sensitively helping Truman develop rapport with key witnesses, but she disappears for a prolonged period, during which she presumably is working on the Gregory Peck film based on her novel. The taciturn Dewey is mostly revealed by his wife Marie (Amy Ryan), who is absolutely delighted to be hobnobbing with glitterati from the entertainment world. Collins’s Smith reveals intelligence beyond that expected by one-half of an ill-fated pair of ne’er-do-well criminals. We may acknowledge Capote’s betrayal of the two men with whom he has fostered confidence, but we cannot feel truly sympathetic toward their plight. Despite whatever cruelties they may have suffered earlier in their lives, nothing justifies the systematic execution of an entire family.

While we get a fascinating and riveting performance by Hoffman, this small intimate film shows us an ugly process that destroyed a talented writer as it brought the story of an ugly, vicious crime to the public. Though it will be a compelling film for many, Capote may leave some hauntingly empty, and the Oscar that Hoffman truly deserves may get sidetracked to an actor in a higher profile film playing a more palatable character.   

 

The current Journal in print is
Winter

5 1/2" x 5" 2008 Wolf Moon Calendar just $10.00 each
More Info

More Info

© Wolf Moon Press 2002-2007 all rights reserved.

Submission Guidelines