Infamous

Genre: psychological drama

With: Toby Jones (Truman Capote), Sandra Bullock (Nelle Harper Lee), Daniel Craig (Perry Smith), Peter Bogdanovich (Bennett Cerf), Jeff Daniels (Alvin Dewey), Hope Davis (Slim Keith), Gwyneth Paltrow (Kitty Dean), Lee Pace (Dick Hickock), Juliet Stevenson (Diana Vreeland)

Director: Douglas McGrath

Screenplay: Douglas McGrath (based on George Plimpton's book)

Release: 2006

Studio: Warner Independent Pictures, Killer Films et al.

Rating: R

MBiS score: 8.3/10

A Capote Double Bill –  

‟There's a Gold Mine in the Sky”

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Story-line: New York City, 1959. When Truman Capote reads a newspaper item on the murder of a Kansas family, he decides to write about the tragedy. Finding who did it is not important, he tells his editor... it’s how this crime has broken mutual trust in the community.       

Pluses: a star-studded cast led by Toby Jones (showing great range as an extravagant, quick-witted and sometimes abrasive Capote), Sandra Bullock (virtually unrecognizable as Nelle), Daniel Craig and Juliet Stevenson, sturdy direction, an alternately funny and devastating screenplay featuring documentary-style snippets and startling exchanges about personal matters and literary work, flashy production values, superb period detail and Gene Autry's very topical song (written by Nick and Charles Kenny).

Minuses: having been released after Bennett Miller's CAPOTE, INFAMOUS was thoroughly trounced at the box office and largely overlooked on the awards circuit... which is really a pity. 

Comments: although based on the same pivotal event as CAPOTE, INFAMOUS places it in a wider context and, in so doing, better illustrates what the novel In Cold Blood meant for Capote on a personal level. Less tragic and solemn than Miller's work, funnier in parts and ultimately quite moving, INFAMOUS throws several interesting issues into the mix, notably the nature of evil, Nelle's own literary success – which clearly bothered Capote – and the risky relationship that can develop between writer and subject. Frankly, there is little to choose between CAPOTE and INFAMOUS, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Toby Jones, Bennett Miller and Douglas McGrath. And I didn't mind seeing both films within a relatively short time... proof positive of their individual value.         

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Capote

Genre: biographical drama

With: Philip Seymour Hoffman (Truman Capote), Catherine Keener (Nelle Harper Lee), Clifton Collins Jr. (Perry Smith), Chris Cooper (Alvin Dewey), Bruce Greenwood (Jack Dunphy), Bob Balaban (William Shawn), Amy Ryan (Marie Dewey), Mark Pellegrino (Richard Dick Ricardo Hickock)

Director: Bennett Miller

Screenplay: Dan Futterman (based on Gerald Clarke’s book)

Release: 2005

Studio: United Artists, Sony Pictures Classics et al.

Rating: 14A

MBiS score: 8.4/10

A Capote Double Bill –  

‟More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.” 

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Story-line: New York, 1959. When he learns of the brutal murder of the Clutter family in Kansas, Truman Capote decides to write about it for the New Yorker. Without delay, he hops on a train to the Sunflower State with Nelle Harper Lee, his childhood friend, who will act as a ‟research assistant and bodyguard”.   

Pluses: Philip Seymour Hoffman's Oscar-winning turn as the multi-faceted and flawed Capote, fine support from Catherine Keener, Chris Cooper and Amy Ryan, an intellectually stimulating screenplay that offers glimpses of literary work but no clear-cut answers, unshowy direction, beautiful cinematography, a superb rendering of the late 1950s and Mychael Danna's quiet musical score. 

Minuses: none really.

Comments: although a bit cold, slow and static, CAPOTE maintains interest from beginning to end because of the tension exerted on its protagonists by a murky and morally difficult situation. Capote, who had undertaken his Kansas assignment rather lightheartedly, faced a life-changing challenge as a person and a writer. Was he exploiting a tragedy and glorifying a crime for the sake of a book... which became one of America's most celebrated novels? Or did he allow himself to be manipulated by Smith and Hickock, the two men charged with the crime? These questions, combined with issues of trust, prejudice, love and clashing personalities are at the heart of this stimulating film that dovetails with the worthy DEAD MAN WALKING, another grave drama about criminal behaviour, justice and redemption.  

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