one of the most overrated "critic's picks" of the year

Rating: 5/10 (24 February 2006)

I can honestly say that this is yet another highly-touted film that I simply didn't appreciate all that much (this thing is up for Best Picture of the year at the Oscars?). Even the across-the-board praise for Philip Seymour Hoffman is a little over the top, in my opinion, as he certainly does possess this guy's look, voice and mannerisms, but as a character with emotional ups and downs, I didn't see all that much variation in this guy from beginning to end. Basically, the guy's a highly intelligent, manipulative, self-absorbed guy, who uses these killers' vulnerabilities against them, so that he could write the "greatest non-fiction novel" of all-time. So am I supposed to care about this guy? Oddly enough, the one actor in the film who did truly capture some humanity in his performance was Clifton Collins Jr. as Perry Smith, one of the "cold-blooded" murderers. Not unlike Sean Penn in the highly effective DEAD MAN WALKING, Collins portrayed real emotion in his guy, straining to come through to our side, but finding it difficult to fight against his lifetime of ugliness. Now why Catherine Keener is being mentioned for anything other than a passable portrayal of a woman who basically just stands around Capote the whole picture while not saying or doing much, is also beyond meThe good points about the film? Well, its final 10-15 minutes certainly come through as the stagnancy of the film's mid-section is finally budged with some actual intrigue, emotion and resolution. For the most part, the film moves at a slow pace and features scene after scene of Capote speaking to either Perry Smith or messing around with his friends and telling them how great he is, while drinking and smoking up a storm. Sure, Capote's grandiose personality is fun to watch at times (if only because the guy's a mess and doesn't seem to know it)Granted, the film looked great, its opening cinematography work in Kansas was splendid, Hoffman certainly acted like the real Truman Capote, Collins Jr. was memorable and the fact that all of the talk ultimately affected Capote in a negative manner was a decent stuff, but the film itself was a little too long, moved a little too slow, and didn't really pull me into the murderers' back story or Capote's inner being