Good movie

Rating: 9/10 (4 December 2005)

Capote is one of those movies that become more enjoyable if you are already familiar with what is about to happen on the screen. This movie is based on a book, which is based on the life of Truman Capote at the time he was researching and writing a non-fiction novel called In Cold Blood. So, there you go. The more you know about Capote and his books and his friends and his friends' books and some movies based on those books the more interested you might become in watching this film.
The nice thing about this movie is that it does not follow the biopic formula, which is basically this one: we meet a great man at the peek of his career and then flashback to his troubled childhood. We then get to see his teenage years, his first marriage, etc., until the day he dies. Capote only offers a few years in Capote's life, but it is written in a way that allows us to understand a lot about this man's past.
Everyone is saying that Philip Seymour Hoffman must get at least an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Capote. I agree. This actor has always been excellent. You might remember him from some small roles in movies such as Scent of a Woman, Boogie Nights, Happiness, Flawless, Punch Drunk Love, etc. He transforms himself in every one of these films and, even when the movies he is in are not that great (Flawless, for instance) his performance makes them watchable.
When the movie begins, Capote is already a recognized fiction writer. He decides to go to a small town where a family has been murdered. His idea is to write a non-fiction novel on how that small community is dealing with such a horrible crime. However, once he meets the murderers he realizes that they are not very different from him. He spends lots of time talking to one of them. He learns that this guy's horrible childhood is something Capote can easily relate to. And yet, one guy became a murderer and the other one a writer.
Capote has money and some power and he can help these murderers to get better lawyers. However, he also wants to finish his non-fiction novel and, what better way of ending it than with the execution of the assassins? I believe the screenplay is very well written. We get a very good idea of who Capote was: how he adored being adored, how he would even pay people to say nice things about him, how he loved being the center of attention at parties, how he was so selfish that he couldn't even enjoy his best friend's success.
This is one of those "slow" films. No one chases anyone, there is not a lot of suspense and the violence is handled with taste. Also, if English is not your first language, you might have some trouble understanding the dialog from some of the characters (I did).