A Performance That Overshadows a Great Film

Rating: 9/10 (14 April 2006)

It will be interesting to see how history treats this film, whether or not this will be Philip Seymour Hoffman's Dog Day Afternoon, Silence of the Lambs or Raging Bull. Whether it will be held with history's truly great performances. I think it should be, and likely will.
Capote is a great film, well made from every aspect, with a strong supporting cast, tight script and engaging story, but it is all overshadowed by one of the best performances in a decade or more. PSH inhabits Capote, his cartoon-like voice, mannerisms, paranoia, ego, gestures. This is made all the more amazing by the fact that this movie is not a hero-worship picture - it tells a generally unflattering tale of a man who was willing to go to any extent to finish his book.
Capote tells the tale of the writing of In Cold Blood, the first "non-fiction novel", entertainment reading based on an entirely true story. Capote travels to the small southern town to write about the brutal murder of a family of four. How it affected the townspeople. He soon finds that he has a novel in the making. One that would make him the most famous writer in America, stop his prolific career and hasten his death.
By chance, Capote meets one of the accused killers, Perry Smith. A lonely and confused man, mistreated as a child but with many hidden gifts. Truman views him as a kindred spirit saying "Its as if we grew up in the same house." But the dilemma strikes - if the novel is to be completed, then Perry (whom Capote has at least inwardly fallen in love with) and his partner in crime must be put to death.
Although we know how this will end for both Smith and Capote, the journey is extraordinary as we watch the manipulation on both sides of the jail cell. In the background is Nell Harper (Cahterin Keener) Capote's friend gaining notoriety for To Kill A Mockingbird. (Capote says of the film at its premier "I don't see what the fuss is all about.") She acts as the films moral centre, telling Capote the truth about himself, which he knows but does not want to hear.
PSH deserved an Oscar nomination two years back for Owning Mahowny and I implore anyone as gripped by his performance here as I was to seek that small film out.
Capote is a worthy best picture nominee on its own, made better by a lead acting performance for the ages. **** out of ****