A great little piece of film.

Rating: 8/10 (15 October 2010)

A film about Truman Capote writing his very last book. A rather slow but ultimately gripping interesting experience driven forward by the performance in its center, Philip Seymour Hoffman. His Oscar was well deserved. What a great actor he is he already showed in earlier films (that I also admired: Boogie Nights, Magnolia, 25th hour ...).
His presentation of the odd, egocentric, homosexual writer Truman Capote is absolutely amazing.
For a great story for his new book he would spare no efforts and also lie to everyone around him. His sources, his workmates, his friends and finally the one he is lying most to is himself.
Famous writer Capote's attention is caught by a murder of a family in a small town near Kansas (it was Kansas, wasn't it?). He wants to write an article about it but when he gets involved in the details of the crime after having talked to the local people and police he is so taken by the case that he decides to write a whole book. To be able to write a good book and to get rich details of the material he has to talk to the murderers themselves. As the investigations and trial move along Capote starts spending more and more time with one of them, Perry. He makes him believe they were friends to get all the information he needs for his book. He lies to him he would describe the murderer how he really is and even gets them a lawyer for their plea. But he is just exploiting them as he needs more time and info for the book. For sure he tells everyone how much he cares about the murderers. And when it comes to an end Capote has already realized that he has spent so much time and effort into his work and always suppressed his emotions. Witnessing the murderers execution he is shaken to the core, questioning his morals and the sense in all that. He would never write a book again.
The first part of this film feels really fresh. Capote still a very distanced character is quite entertaining to regard.
There is a bit of a slow down in the second quarter of the film but it goes by fast as we quickly move on into the more emotional part of the movie. All the relationships around Capote are interesting most important of course the one to the prisoner Perry. We get more and more involved and it's so great to see Capote being torn between his need for glamour and being in the center of attention and a successful writer, and his personal emotions. The performances is the key to keep the audience interested all the way through.
This is a small and fine film that looks good on the surface and delivers depth in its core.
As a biographical drama this is a film for mature audiences. People with low standards and demands for their movies might claim this is a boring flick due to the slow pace I can just say: You are not sufficiently evolved cause it's not!
Good film!