The Truman No-Show

Rating: 5/10 (3 May 2006)

This is one of the most boring movies I have ever seen that can still be extremely obnoxious and uninteresting at the same time. This, perhaps is its achievement. A well-mounted and expensive piece of crap.
The main character, author Truman Capote, comes off as a self-applauding intellectual twit verging on flaming queen, albeit a talented one. Played by Hoffman with all the depth of two-line obituary, Capote leaves us wondering just what on earth he sees redeeming in this murderer. Hoffman resembles Capote, but does not sound like anything more than a lounge comic doing a poor impression.
The movie is lovingly filmed with extreme attention to detail, and emulates The Shawshank Redemption right down to the tinkly piano notes and camera angles. The director clearly thinks that good cinema is found in actionless long shots, held for excruciatingly long periods of time.
I must confess to having watched only 3/4 of the picture, not being able to withstand another moment of my life lost on this dreck and its completely uninteresting subject matter. Perhaps Mr. Capote was a brilliant writer (the movie pounds that down our throats), but as the subject of a movie he fails to excite. That is odd, as the real Truman Capote was rather fun to watch, animated and witty. This guy comes off as the gay reaper.
I rated it a five for its good production values and cinematography.