Capote

Capote (Director: Bennett Miller)

CAPOTE won 1 Oscar:

Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman












This is Miller's first feature. This is based on Gerald Clarke's account of the events during which Truman Capote wrote "In Cold Blood." Adapted by actor Dan Futterman, whose biggest claim to fame may be having played Robin Williams' son in The Birdcage. This is scheduled for a limited release on September 30. No idea when it's supposed to open a little wider.

The big reason, I feel, that biopics are usually not resoundingly great movies is that the filmmakers have to recreate years of a life and narrow it down to two hours or so--and in the end, it's not a very compelling story--the movie's only function seems to be whether or not the main performer nailed the real life counterpart's mannerisms and finest moments. It's a hit-list of moments--"here's where our real-life legend first got laid! when he took drugs! when he collapsed and went to rehab! when he killed himself!" When it is like that, it's hard to focus on an honest-to-God story that drives the picture. It may sound like a pretentious way to go about watching movies--but how many biopics are really up there on people's top 10 of all time or even a year? There's always something missing.

Capote is a well-focused film. Instead of trying to make a "best-of" in the history of Truman Capote's life, we get one defining section of it: His work on "In Cold Blood," his true account of convicted murderers on Death Row. Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) visits one of the convicts, Perry Smith (Clifton Collins, Jr.) in an effort to better understand his story and with the hope that the truth may possibly keep him from the death penalty.

Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Capote in yet another pitch-perfect performance. The movie doesn't flinch from portraying him as an attention-hungry icon--a man who has to own every conversation he's in, whose motivations for writing the book he's writing don't seem completely honorable--he wants more recognition. Revelations later in the story change the man, but I was rather impressed with the film's treatment of its hero--unafraid to show him in a truly bad light, trusting the audience that they will still be with him in the end.

Catherine Keener also turns in another good performance in 2005 (this is her 3rd movie, after The Interpreter and 40 Year-Old Virgin). She plays Capote's friend Harper Lee, whose "To Kill A Mockingbird" was inspired by Capote's work. I think Hoffman may have an outside shot at an Oscar nom here, but this is going to be a crowded Actor pool.