watch it with the original movie

Rating: 10/10 (6 November 2005)

I have been a fan of Seymour Hoffman for some time. I was not surprised to see this performance, only grateful that he was finally given the chance to show what he has always been capable of. I think the Academy Award scene is the interview with the girlfriend of the daughter--the "I was different, too" speech. Breathless.
Being of a demographic that remembers Truman Capote--both the incisive talent and the sad parody, yes, I agree with other reviewers that one cannot tell the difference here between the icon and the performer. This is due in large part, but not exclusively, to Hoffman. The structure of the story also is amazingly insightful, paralleling as it does the novel itself as well as the movie. I felt transported into the world of Bertold Brecht, for here truly, the artist becomes his story--culminating finally in an ironic interpretation of the title "In Cold Blood." Two worlds, indeed, but not the worlds of the conservative and the criminal--rather the worlds of selfish celebrity and heartland authenticity--exploited in cold blood. I strongly recommend reviewing the novel and the movie with this movie in tandem. I am left with the question--can there ever be such a thing as a non-fiction novel?