"That's a nice-a donut."

Monday, April 17, 2006

Capote (2005)

The life of acclaimed American author Truman Capote and, more specifically, the deep emotional impact that his best and most famous work had on him is explored in director Bennett Miller's Capote. The film opens on a dark and dreary day in November 1959 in the middle of Kansas. A good and prominent farm family, the Clutters, have been brutally murdered in cold blood. Shortly thereafter back in New York City, novelist Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) reads about the slaying in the newspaper and has an epiphany that his next work should be about this. It would be a "nonfiction novel" and would change the way people think and write. He travels to Kansas for his research, along with Nelle Harper Lee (Catherine Keener), his part-time research assistant, close friend and confidante, and fellow writer (who would soon find some mild success of her own with To Kill a Mockingbird).

The thrust of much of the film centers on Capote's relationship with Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.), one of the two men who were tried and convicted for the crimes. Truman interviews him regularly and even appears as a friend to Perry (they are "amigos"). In reality though, Truman has been using him to get his story - he continually lies to him, such as saying he hasn't written much yet or hasn't even thought about a title. He clamors for the early buzz and acclaim the book is getting, but knows that to really make a mark, he needs to finally hear Perry's story of what really happened that horrifying night. This ends up coming back to haunt Truman as he lays with overwhelming guilt over the prisoners' fate. Although "In Cold Blood" was hailed as a literary classic and made him one of the most popular writers in America, ultimately Capote would never finish another book, as he would succumb to severe alcoholism and depression.

The heinous crime was the story, but it is really all about Capote though (as the title might suggest). Back in Manhattan, where many of the scenes show Truman drinking and socializing with many adoring friends, spinning yarns and telling hilarious tales, he is always the center of attention. It's all a story to him - the greatest story - and nothing else. "Sometimes when I think of how good my book is going to be, I can't breath," he says. And early in the film he tells the Kansas chief investigator Dewey (Chris Cooper) that he didn't really care if they found the killers or not, he just wanted something good.

The one problem with the direction and tone that the movie takes is that I was never convinced that Capote was experiencing guilt. He was fairly self-centered for much of the movie, so I never bought into his sadness or remorse. There was no emotional wallop like there should have been at the end. Hoffman carried his tight, nasally voiced impersonation of the famous writer into an Oscar-winning role, and it's a fine performance and he is clearly in control in pretty much every scene he is in (which is pretty much every scene in the film). Though it's easy to imagine that he would not have won all the acclaim if Capote had been a fictional character. I also didn't care for the way that Harper Lee was portrayed in the second half; after the initial investigation is over in Kansas, it is only Truman that goes back after that. But it was as if the filmmaker's still felt that she should be part of the story - so we get beaten over the head with "look, she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, there are two famous writers in this story!"

Perhaps I'm being too harsh though - I enjoyed the movie. It is a bit slow moving at times but does a commendable job of navigating between both the "In Cold Blood" parts and the story-about-the-story parts. I liked that when Smith and Dick Hickock, his accomplice, were finally captured, the movie was seen completely through Truman's eyes. We don't see any backroom police investigations, or them actually being arrested; just Truman and Nelle watching with others in a crowd as the men are taken into a police station. The many long shots that Miller uses, especially in the outdoor Kansas scenes, provide a deep sense of emotional distance, not too unlike the distance between Truman and the heart-wrenching truth. And, more than anything, I'm grateful that Hoffman has finally gotten his due as an accomplished actor.

The Verdict: B.

Michael Bentley 2:19 PM

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