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(More customer reviews)Believe me when I tell you that this is one of the best films of the year. It is a complex and multi-layered work of art. Truman Capote, under assignment from the New Yorker magazine, explores a terrible murder of a family of four in the American heartland. He asks his childhood friend from Monroeville Alabama, Nelle Harper Lee, to act as his assistant and together they will explore the murder and its impact on the community for a magazine article. Phillip Seymour Hoffman delivers the acting performance of the year playing the role of the cognitively unique Capote. Catherine Keener was superb playing the solid strength of Harper Lee.
When the killers are soon caught and Capote sees the half-Native American Perry Smith, an odd chemistry develops and Capote becomes obsessed with Smith. Yet Capote manipulates the two murderers and even pays for their first court appeal in order to obtain more information for the article that has now developed into a book. Clifton Collins is excellent in the role of Perry Smith and Chris Cooper is excellent as the head of the Kansas division of the FBI.
Capote had a rare gift, the ability to make himself totally vulnerable through painful self revelation, so as to obtain entry into soul of his target. He does this with Smith and they begin a careful relationship whereby they reveal themselves to each other like chess players, each making careful calculated moves so as to obtain the maximum amount of information and manipulation of the other party.
Harper Lee confronts Capote asking whether he has fallen in love with Perry Smith, but Capote says that he and Smith are the same person, only Capote ran out the 'front door' and Smith ran out the 'back door".
Capote names his book "In Cold Blood" but keeps this information from Perry Smith. Eventually you begin to realize that cold blood is the mental state that Capote had to assume to manipulate the killers long enough to extract the full story of the murders from them.
As the book nears completion, Capote begins a mental breakdown. He may actually love Perry Smith and thus regrets his death but also he knows the execution must occur to bring closure to the book so it can be published. Thus when Capote wishes Smith to die he is cast into guilt and grief; but when he wishes Smith to live, he is cast into depression over the lack of closure of his masterpiece.
One of the most wise plot devices in this film was to contrast the fall of Capote with the rise of Harper Lee and her wonderful novel "To Kill A Mockingbird". Capote sinks into depression and alcoholism laced with mounting self pity while Harper Lee gains acclaim first for her novel and then for the film starring Gregory Peck. On the night of the gala opening of "To Kill A Mockingbird" Capote attends the festivities in a drunken depressed stupor and is so self absorbed that he can't even offer his supportive best friend, Lee, congratulations on her novel and film.
What do we make of this film? It is incredibly well done and demonstrates that no act of mercy is totally pure, no act of cruelty is totally evil. It was Capote's incredible skills that allowed him to manipulate the killers to gain the story that made him the most famous American living writer; but he sold his soul to buy the story and he never recovered from the wound.
This is mature film-making at its best!
Click Here to see more reviews about: Capote (2005)
In November, 1959, the shocking murder of a smalltown Kansas family captures the imagination of Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman), famed author of Breakfast at Tiffany's. With his childhood friend Harper Lee (Catherine Keener), writer of the soon-to-be published To Kill a Mockingbird, Capote sets out to investigate, winning over the locals despite his flamboyant appearance and style. When he forms a bond with the killers and their execution date nears, the writing of "In Cold Blood," a book that will change the course of American literature, takes a drastic toll on Capote, changing him in ways he never imagined. Stellar performances from Hoffman and Keener, as well as Academy Award® winner Chris Cooper (Adaptation) are why critics are calling Capote a "must-see movie."
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