Capote

Director: Bennett Miller
Screenwriter: Dan Futterman
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Clifton Collins Jr., Catherine Keener
Running time: 114 mins
Certificate: 15

Directed by Bennett Miller (The Cruise), Capote tells the story of the author’s writing of In Cold Blood, the book which would be the last project he would finish and would make him one of the United States’ most famous authors.

Truman Capote’s (Hoffman) project was conceived in 1959 when he discovered a newspaper article about a family of four being murdered in a small community in Kansas. When he travels there, along with friend and fellow writer To Kill A Mockingbird author Nell Harper Lee (Keener) he becomes intrigued by the case. When he meets the two men accused of the killings, particularly Perry Smith (Collins), his fascination grows and he forms a deep emotional attachment to the pair and decides to stretch the project to a full book which will take him several years to complete.

Hoffman delivers an excellent depiction of Capote himself, and brings out the full complexity of the character and his situation as well as capturing the effeminacy and flamboyance of the man as well as his calculating, manipulative side. Although the subjects of his book hang on expectantly for its completion so that it may help their case by showing them in a good light, such a portrayal of them never materialises, epitomised by the title of his ‘non-fiction novel’. The fact that the writer is so torn between creating the best non-fiction book of the decade whilst at the same time feeling an affinity to Smith with whom he shares a similar background means that at the end of the film it is hard for the audience to make a firm opinion of the man’s motivations.

As the film seems to accuse the self-centred Capote of callously using the murderers, and also the crime they committed, to further his own career (even though increasing alcoholism got the better of it after the publication of In Cold Blood) means that by the time Smith and his partner in crime are taken to the gallows it is hard to feel a great deal of sympathy for the writer. Even though he claims to be losing a friend, it’s a friend that he had duplicitously exploited and given false hope throughout their relationship and although he pleads that he couldn’t have done anything for them, he never really tried. However, it is hard to feel unmoved by his recognition of his failings.

A well-paced, well-directed and superbly acted biopic, Capote is a fair bet to do well come Oscar night.