A rather slow and quiet account

Rating: 7/10 (6 May 2007)

As others have noted, this movie tends to bias toward the view of the killers rather than the killed which I find bothersome. I do not find killers of helpless families to be interesting or romantic. However, that's only part of the film and hardly the center of it.
The center is, in fact, the title character. The movie covers several years of Capote's life during which he wrote the book which did change many things in publishing. It made the author the most celebrated author in the US and maybe the world. However, what he had to go through to write the book as well as he did destroyed him utterly.
The movie chronicles the destruction of the killers, to some extent the killed and most completely, the author who lost his detachment entirely. It is a picture of an artist, Capote, who sacrificed himself for his art. The art work is great, but it took everything from the artist to create it.
My problems with the movie remain mostly directorial. We are often treated to jump mood shots supposed to convey the barrenness of the Kansas USA scenery where the crime took place, but the movie short shrifts how that barrenness played with the people of the area who were affected by the crime. Instead, we're shown seemingly hours of what in reflection, is unrelated Capote verbiage with his companion or with others in the town or prison.
Thus the two most affected by the crime, the dead family and the townspeople are ignored in favor of us 'learning about' the criminals and Capote's love life.
However, the worst complaint I have about this movie is simple: it's mostly inaudible. This is by far the worst sound I've heard in a modern movie. Capote as a man spoke in a mumbly high lisp which the player does well, but it's frustrating to miss at least 30% of what he says. Ditto the other characters because the director has chosen a documentary hand held camera look to the movie.
The sound isn't any better than you'd get with a Super 8 home movie camera crippled by a $3 mic and in a windstorm. That may be the intent of the director, but it means that the movie which is 70% script and 30% performances loses much of the script.
Very much worth a viewing or two, but clean your ears well before and pump up the volume.