Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

I just saw this amazing film for the first time today. This is several months after I saw Philip Seymour Hoffman's Oscar winning performance in Capote. Hoffman earned that Oscar, no question. I believe Toby Jones' performance was unfairly lost in the shadow.Upon hearing of the murders of the Clutter family in Kansas, Capote, along with close friend Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock), travel there to get responses from the locals. Upon the arrest of Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, Capote takes his novel in a different direction. He wants to get the story from the source.Dick Hickock (Lee Pace) speaks openly, Perry Smith (an unrecognizable Daniel Craig) is closed and suspicious. Capote spends much of the film trying to establish a relationship with him. What starts as a love/hate relationship evolves into one of trust and respect and, dare I say it, love. Not romantic to be sure, but love nonetheless. The whole story, from meeting the two killers for the first time, until their eventual execution set the stage for the remainder of Capote's life and death less than 20 years later. The ending, so very simple, speaks volumes.

"INFAMOUS" ~~ THE OTHER BETTER CAPOTE ... Directed by Douglas McGrath who also wrote the screenplay for Woody Allen's "Bullets Over Broadway" (1994) and directed Paltrow in Jane Austen's "Emma", 1996. Starring Toby Jones as Truman Capote -- one of those rare cases where the actor did not "play" the role but completely entered the skin of the real life character in question. Incredibly "Infamous" was on last night on Hungarian TV, Dubbed into Hungarian but I watched it anyway, for the body language and Production values. And the general feeling of the movie. I had forgotten what an important role a deglamourised Sandra Bullock had in this picture as Capote's constant companion throughout. But the fact that this major Hollywood star was content to take a supporting role to an unknown British actor is a real mark of her professionalism. Interestingly, she smokes in just about every scene she's in, which I assume was just for the requirements of the picture. Toby Jones is head and shoulders better than Seymour Hoffman was in the role, Besides the fact that he is a dead ringer for minuscule real life Capote whereas Bulky Seymour wasn't even close. If there were anything resembling integrity In the Hollywood film world, Jones should have been a walkaway for best actor in 2007 and Bullock would have been a very worthy candidate for Best Supporting actress, female -- Come to think of it, they oughta have a special slot for "Best supporting role by a star leading actor/actress willing to take a back seat" in a quality picture.I saw "Infamous" at the 2006 Venice film festival and recognized it then as an unsung masterpiece, far far better than the Hoffman caricature earlier the same year. It opens with an incredible turn by Gwyneth Paltrow in a long white gown as Peggy Lee doing the old standard "This must Be Love" -- but she is so touched by the inherent sadness of the song that she breaks down in the middle and has to stop. What an opener! ~ possibly the best single scene Paltrow has ever done. Which sets the tone for everything to come. A series of interviews follows with celebrity contemporaries of Capote speaking to the camera and identified by name with on screen titles which gives the picture a documentary feel, but the name celebrities are themselves celebrity actors such as Sigourney Weaver and especially, Peter Bogdanovich as Bennet Cerf. I think this is definitely one of the very best pictures of the Decade, 2000- 2010, and one that I would like to own so I could watch it over and over. And don't forget Daniel Craig (later to be Dubble 007!) as death row killer Perry Smith who Capote falls in love with! The prison interviews are filmed in a kind of chiaro-oscuro and the 1959 Period atmosphere is unobtrusively authentic-- without parading collectors vintage cars across the screen in every outdoor scene. "Infamous", 2006, is a true gem in every respect but fell between the cracks because it was overshadowed by the hullabaloo over the distinctly inferior Sony Pictures production -- a classic case of the triumph of publicity over Quality.

I guess it's indicative of the general craziness of the movie industry that two films about the same person came out within a year of each other. For my money, there's not much to choose between them, despite the fact that it was Philip Seymour Hoffman/'Capote' which grabbed the Oscar and most of the critical acclaim. However, it's Toby Jones who is - physically - Truman Capote, in so much as he's a tiny dynamo of a man, who flounces around Kansas in scarves and fur-collared coats but is able to needle the police detective at arm-wrestling. Jones is totally convincing. Less happily, Sandra Bullock is much too beautiful to mouse around small-town Holcomb as Capote's friend and fellow writer Harper Lee. This is also part of the problem with casting Daniel Craig as one of the murderers: he's too chiselled and not especially good at being a rodeo-riding American. Sigourney Weaver, Hope Davis and Gwyneth Paltrow excel as Capote's NY society friends and some of the best scenes in the film involve them in ensemble performances: cutting a rug at cocktail parties or testifying to camera about their friend's rise and fall, after his death. It's at these points that you remember that 'Infamous' is based on George Plimpton's book 'Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career', a collection of reminiscences about Capote.

Toby Jones's portrayal of Capote is better acted, more accurate; captures Capote's idiosyncrasies without self-consciousness and therefore is more convincing; than Philip Seymour Hoffman's better-known version in 'Capote'. The supporting cast are wonderful too, from Sandra Bullock's underplayed interpretation of Nelle Harper Lee, where she embodies the character entirely from the way she walks, to her sense of irony and sympathy with her friend. In Lee's masterpiece, 'To Kill A Mockingbird' Lee describes the character Dill, based on the young Capote, in ways which are in keeping with the way Toby Jones plays the adult Capote. The characters are one and the same. These two brilliant performances lift this film way beyond its counterpart, 'Capote' and Toby Jones should have received the Oscar, not Hoffman, and Sandra Bullock should have received the Best Supporting Actress award. What a pity this film did not come out sooner so that it would not have been overshadowed by the other one.And this is not all. The subtlety of direction, Daniel Craig's performance as Perry Smith, and the cameos of New York society women with Juliet Stevenson, Sigourney Weaver, Hope Davis, and Isabella Rossellini, were great. Sets and costumes fabulous, screenplay an amazing interpretation of the facts and fiction around 'In Cold Blood'. I cannot commend this film enough. Fantastic achievement.