CAPOTE (Bennett Miller, 2005) ***1/2

Rating: 8/10 (5 May 2006)

Despite (or perhaps because of) its low-key nature, this emerges as a better film than either CRASH (2004) or BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (2005). Its success, clearly, is due mainly to Philip Seymour Hoffman's uncanny portrayal that deservedly won him several accolades (chief among them the Best Actor Oscar). For the record, I've watched 5 films that were either scripted by Truman Capote or adapted from his books - INDISCRETION OF AN American WIFE (1953), BEAT THE DEVIL (1953), BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (1961), THE INNOCENTS (1961) and IN COLD BLOOD (1967) - but also his one acting role in MURDER BY DEATH (1976).
While the film's title would suggest a biopic, strictly speaking it isn't - as the script focuses on just one, albeit pivotal, incident in the author's life. Its careful depiction of a Midwestern American town gives the film an air of authenticity, but this is contrasted with Capote's flamboyant lifestyle and the high-class milieu he typically inhabits.
Thankfully, the film's gay subtext is not overstressed. It is however suggested in Capote's relationship with one of the killers (which I have no way of knowing whether this is how it really was, or whether it was merely 'invented' by the script); the result of this, unfortunately, is that the second killer - displayed in a one-dimensional (i.e. unsympathetic) fashion - doesn't really get his due! I've only watched Richard Brooks' superb film version of IN COLD BLOOD (which was itself remade as a TV mini-series in 1996!) once - but I did recall instances from it (particularly the massacre and the subsequent execution of the culprits) through their representation in CAPOTE - and I would certainly have watched it again now, were my two VCRs not being repaired at the moment!!