The Mendacity Of Success

Rating: 7/10 (17 February 2017)

Watching Philip Seymour Hoffman inhabit the singular character that was Truman Capote is a triumph of art, even if like with a lot of Hoffman, I find an underlying pain tends to dominate.
"Capote" puts us in the Clutter household in Holcomb, Kansas, early one November morning in 1959. The family has been murdered for no clear reason, frightening the community. In New York City, the celebrated fiction writer Truman Capote reads of the crime and decides he must go there, in search of something he doesn't understand. This will eventually both produce his masterpiece and ruin him, not necessarily in that order.
"It's the book I was always meant to write," he tells high-society friends between languid puffs of his cigarette. "What have you been up to?"
"Capote" the film may oversell the idea that the strain and emotional toll it took Capote to write "In Cold Blood" caused him to descend into an alcoholic nullity. But Hoffman's finely-tuned performance does deliver. His voice and manner accurately summon the famous talk-show guest I remember. His eyes alternately suggest aloofness and pain, which is what makes for Capote's tragedy.
It seems that Capote is a wonderful one for empathy as something to pull out of his writer's tool box, using it to form a bond with a leery investigator, Alvin Dewey, Jr. (Chris Cooper). But he has more trouble with empathy from the heart, which comes across especially when he meets one of the accused murderers, Perry Smith (Clifton Collins, Jr.).
Smith and Capote immediately bond, as both are outsiders. But whereas Smith sees a friend, Capote sees a "gold mine," and one in need of mining before the state executioner steps in. Most of what director Bennett Miller and scripter Dan Futterman focus on in the second half is how much of this amounts to a devil's bargain, given the games Capote plays. Capote's lover, Jack Dunphy (Bruce Greenwood) and his childhood pal and researcher, Harper Lee (Catherine Keener) provide the moral conscience from the sidelines.
I found them to be wet blankets, especially Greenwood, who seems to be directed to communicate seething ambidirectional jealousy in every scene. For all the gambits and head games Capote played, he was also working on a story that would present Smith and his accomplice, Dick Hickock (Mark Pellegrino), in as decent a light as two wanton killers ever got.
It feels at times like "Capote" overeggs the morality lesson, and its sepulchral pace adds to the weight. But the visual tone is keenly done, especially Adam Kimmel's serene shots of Manitoba doubling for Kansas. Hoffman's Oscar win is well-earned, as he centers a number of powerful scenes showcasing his character at opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, schmoozing with the cognoscenti and trying to compose himself for a final farewell with Smith and Hickock.
Did Capote really go completely silent in print after "In Cold Blood" as the movie has it? Not if you count his 1980 best-selling collection, "Music For Chameleons." But Futterman's script tells a tale that resonates with the compromises writers make in practicing their craft, and Hoffman's searing humanity carries overtones of classical tragedy.
"It's the hardest when someone has a notion about you and it's impossible to convince them otherwise," he tells a Clutter friend by way of inveigling some useful information on the family. I have a feeling if Capote was still alive, he'd want use of that same line for Miller and Futterman.
Whether it's fact or fiction, "Capote" the film makes a riveting case study. I think Capote, who made a career out of obscuring the two forms, would have appreciated it.