Capote

Rating: 8/10 (29 April 2016)

"Capote", like it's subject, is not conventional. Rather than trying to observe Trumand Capote's entire life in one film, it observes the peak of his career and his turning point in his life, and that is the four years that he was researching and writing the first non fiction novel, "In Cold Blood". Yet the film seems to do justice to his entire life by subtle dialogue and showing his major development over the course of these four years. The film has a quiet, somber mood that fits perfectly with the subject, and one of Philip Seymour Hoffman's greatest performances in a career full of great performances.
Truman Capote hears about a murder of the Clutters family in Kansas, and begins to do research on the subject. Buy when he finally sees one of the two murderers, Perry Smith, he seems immediately entranced by how lonely and shy Perry is, completely reversing his expectations, and as a shot in that scene shows, he feels like he is trapped in a cage away from Perry, rather than vice versa. But what Truman really sees is himself in Perry. As Truman states earlier in the film, people often feel that they know him, or have him figured out when really they have no idea who he is. And the same goes for Perry. He is a murderer, and that's all that most people will ever see in him from now on. But Truman sees something else, and wants, no, needs to understand this man. Truman places a lot of emphasis on the fact that he wants to change the way the world views Perry, and he also seems to want to change the way he is viewed. He says Perry wants so desperately to be taken seriously, but Truman is trying the be taken seriously by making this book as well. He begins meeting with him and they slowly reveal themselves to each other, Truman learning that Perry had a troubled childhood as well. Perry is very reluctant to talk about the actual murder, however.
Truman begins drifting away from everyone else in his life, and there comes a point in the film 2 here it seems that the two may be using each other, but then the scene comes where Perry talks about the murders with Truman, and it's clear that the two have a connection. Ironically, the time when Perry seems the most weak and vulnerable is actually in the scene of the murders. After this, it cuts forward, and at this point Truman just wants this to be over, and frankly, he just hopes that Perry can just die so he never has to worry about him again. Perry begins trying to contact him, but Truman knows that he can't let himself get connected to Perry again, or else he may never recover. Eventually, however, just before his execution, Perry sends a heartfelt letter that brings Truman to him shortly before his execution. He witnesses the execution and kept telling himself there was nothing he could do to prevent it afterwords. But he can't escape the truth and it seems a part of him was lost forever when Perry died.
The film is a not only a great character study, but one of the greatest biopics of all time, and a sad reminder that there is almost always much more to the people we think we understand.