His greatest success - and his greatest failure

Rating: 10/10 (21 September 2007)

Philip Seymour Hoffman is "Capote" in this meticulously made 2005 film, with a script by Dan Futterman and directed by Bennett Miller. To say that Mr. Hoffman, who, by the way, is from my home town, IS Capote gives his performance an apt description. This is no portrayal. You believe you are watching the funny, quirky and sad Capote throughout.
The film focuses on Capote's interest in the Clutter murders, immortalized in his book, "In Cold Blood." Capote goes with his good friend, Harper Lee, who is not yet famous, to Holcomb, Kansas, in order to do an article for the New Yorker. He decides instead to write a book. The book becomes his greatest triumph and probably is responsible for ruining the man forever.
The story of the relationship between Truman and one of the killers, Perry Smith, is brilliantly shown in all its complications. Each uses the other - Perry sees Truman as his get out of jail free card, and Truman sees Perry as his insight into the murders. Smith plays on Truman's feelings for all he's worth, showing himself to be a sensitive artist who, in his own words, thought Mr. Clutter was a nice, gentle man up until the time he slit his throat. On his end, Truman lies his face off to Perry - no, he doesn't have a title for his book, he hasn't written much, Perry's sister misses him, etc. But along the way, Capote begins to feels a kinship for this young man, who shares a similar unhappy childhood with him. He attempts to detach himself from the situation as the killers get stays of execution, but finally, it's too much. He can't finish the book because they're not dead, and the constant notes from Perry are driving him crazy. Perry asks for help in getting another lawyer; Truman writes him a letter and says that he's tried but he can't. We know he didn't try. Capote has what can best be described as a nervous breakdown when, in between drinking bouts, he takes to his bed and stops talking. Once he returns to Kansas, he will witness events that will haunt him for the rest of his life.
Hoffman is perfection as the tortured Capote, and the rest of the cast - Caroline Keener, Clifton Collins, Mark Pellegrino, Chris Cooper and Bruce Greenwood is uniformly excellent, with Collins as the soulful-eyed Perry a standout. Keener's straightforward acting as Harper Lee is a nice juxtaposition to the outrageous Truman. The film is made with incredible attention to detail to set the atmosphere of '50s Kansas, right down to the clothing and color pallet chosen for the film.
"In Cold Blood" was a career-making book - and the last book Capote ever finished. In the DVD commentary, someone said that Capote probably helped Perry to come to terms with what he'd done. After seeing documentaries involving these murders, it seems clear that Perry never accepted what he'd done and always saw himself as a victim, complaining that he could have been a great artist. But although they each had bad childhoods, Capote ended up as a world-famous author while Perry wound up a cold-blooded murderer.
"There are more tears shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones," Capote writes in his unfinished novel, "Answered Prayers." In reality, this is a quote from St. Theresa of Avila, and it fits in Capote's case. For the rest of his life, Capote would have to live with the great fame he sought being the result of murder and the fact that, for his mental torture to stop and for his book to complete, he wanted and needed the killers to be dead.