Brilliant Film About A Brilliant Man

Rating: 10/10 (26 March 2006)

I watched this movie last night and find that I'm still processing what I saw. Current accolades aside, I firmly believe this film will go down in history as perhaps the best biopic of all time.
***spoilers** The movie traces the four-five years that Capote spent writing "In Cold Blood," and how writing his most important creation also served to be his undoing.
Capote, the toast of literary writing circles after his first few novels are published, decides to write about the murder of the Clutter family in Kansas. Manipulating his way into unrestricted access to all sides of the crime, the victims, the killers, the investigators and the "collateral damage (the family and friends of both victims and killers)," he goes about writing the masterpiece that will not only change him, but will invent an entire new genre of writing: the true crime novel. In doing so, he paves the way for such modern writers as Ann Rule and other similar authors.
However, unlike most other true crime writers, who generally begin their careers in law enforcement and are trained to deal with the emotional impact of their work, Capote comes to this work wholly unprepared for the impact it will have on his psyche. The proof of his gift as a writer is evidenced by the fact that he finished the work at all.
While Capote is a master manipulator, he is also an extremely caring person. As he is drawn deeper into the facts of the crime, and the lives of the people affected by it, he is also drawn into caring about all of persons about whom he writes, especially Perry Smith, with whom he shares a certain commonality of background. While he is repulsed by what Smith and Hickock have done, he is also digging for an answer as to "why?"
Phillip Seymour Hoffman's brilliant and nuanced portrayal of Capote carries the film, which is supported by a superb screenplay, supporting actors and cinematography; all of which combine to document the story of a brilliant writer who was destroyed by his groundbreaking masterpiece.
10/10