The making of the book "In Cold Blood"

Rating: 7/10 (22 April 2016)

What I like most about movies is that you can learn something from (some of) them. Having read the non-fiction novel "In Cold Blood", literary genre which Truman Capote claims to be pioneer, I was curious about this movie. The book describes the true events of how two young Americans met and the brutal homicide they committed against a family in 1959 Kansas; and the movie tells us the story of how that book came to be.
What's it about:
We are presented to Truman Capote (magisterially played by Philip Seymour Hoffman that deservedly won the Oscar for this performance), showing us the man, what he did, his social circles, his intimacy and motivations. So we get an idea of who he was, when then comes the murder news that lead Capote to his investigation, personally interviewing the captured murderers, going so far as to create a bond of friendship specially with Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.).
What's bad:
The title is misleading as it is not so much a biography but an episode of Capote's life, namely the making of the book "In Cold Blood". Although the movie establishes well a portrayal of Truman's personality, instead of wasting so much time with long and still shots of plains and buildings and him staring at the horizon, it could give us know the why he be so, is origins, more background on how he came to the literary circle and what more works he published besides the well known "Breakfast at Tiffany's" that resulted on the homonymous movie starling Audrey Hepburn. Moreover, it is known that Truman maintained a long-term homosexual relationship with the also novelist Jack Dunphy (Bruce Greenwood), but that idea is only insinuated never shown directly if they were more than really close friends.
What's good:
Proclaiming to be a biography it shows little, but something is better than nothing. At first I was going to rate this movie 6/10, but now that I've given it some thought I see the genie behind. The investigation and the friendship with Perry were events that deeply marked Capote for the rest of his life, so much that one can say that he sacrificed himself (voluntarily or not) in order to leave us a legacy (as questionable as it may be), and I believe Hoffman did it also with this role. Good directing, sets, color, shots, costumes and all the cast are at the highest level marvelously complementing this unhurriedly told story that being a sad one, does not try to be sentimentalist, and that I congratulate.
Worth seeing. 7/10.
22/04/2016
R.I.P., Philip Seymour Hoffman (1967-2014). Respect.