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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