Hoffman is Capote - but not in a good way

Rating: 5/10 (16 October 2005)

And by that I mean the whole film is so in love with itself that it fails to realise that it is actually incredibly shallow. Accomplished maybe, but ultimately saying nothing. As Capote the novelist was in love with his prose, then Capote the movie is in love with its imagery, but doesn't seem to appreciate that it ends up revealing more about its maker than it does about its subject. Yes, it can be pretty, but it has all been done before - and better. No visual cliché can be resisted. For example, when Capote himself reveals his self-conscious prose in the reading when he describes the clothes of the victims, you can't help but remember that in the earlier courtroom scene you know with a sinking heart that the camera will not be able to resist panning over the relentless grey suits to reveal Perry as the lone figure in white. It's not that the film isn't enjoyable, it is just relentlessly self-conscious. And even this almost works until the flashbacks to the killings when you realise that the shallowness isn't post-modern genius, merely an unconscious apeing of Capote's own failings. And to see the movie as an examination of how a writer manipulates truth seems to me to miss the point that the character Capote himself describes In Cold Blood as a novel from the outset. Indeed, isn't the book's "novelisation" of reportage the whole reason In Cold Blood is famous in the first place? As for Hoffman's performance, while enjoyable, it is parody rather than characterisation - it feels like watching a stand-up comedian pretending to be Alec Guinness acting out a role. No doubt Capote was an unpleasant human being but the charm he must have possessed is reduced by Hoffman to merely a couple of queenie comments at parties. Also, the way the screenplay keeps underlying his hypocrisy ends up being almost insulting to the audience's intelligence. To be fair, it is well made and worth seeing - the fact that with a little more courage its flaws could be turned into triumphs shows that it isn't dull. And with ruthless editing it could have been so much better. Unfortunately this would have meant that it would have only been 70 minutes long. Mind you - Breakfast in Tiffany's was a novella...