Fantastic, Honest

Rating: 10/10 (25 January 2006)

Capote was the first film I've seen in some time for which I haven't read a half-dozen reviews, watched the trailer (twice), and checked the IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes ratings before placing my eight-dollar and fifty-cent wager. Maybe it's fear of commitment. Perhaps I've been burnt too many times. Mostly I'm just cheap. All this considered, the fact that I chose to see this film based on a single, solitary "Oh, it's good," from my friend Tamara, more of a conversational aside than an actual discussion, is unusual.
Things could have gone badly.
(To be fair, I also knew Philip Seymour Hoffman to be quite talented.)
But still, it could have turned out terribly.
The film was, in fact, absolutely wonderful. Having read nothing of the plot, I expected the storyline to focus on celebrity hobnobbing, heavy drinking, and the other more superficial elements of Capote's life. It simply never occurred to me that the movie would focus on In Cold Blood. The intensity was just incredible, relentless. While Hoffman's invocation of Capote's peculiar accent and pitch comes across as a slightly comic departure from his real-life voice in the opening scenes, it is so consistently done, with such confidence that  only minutes into the film - it seems no more affected than it would on Capote himself. The rest of the cast delivers solid performances as well, including a lovable but uncharacteristically unsexy Catherine Keener. Clifton Collins Jr. is excellent as the murderer, Perry Smith, convincing the audience that he is, all at once, vulnerable, sweet, damaged, and volatile.
Perhaps the greatest thing about this film was its commitment to realism, it's honesty. The film never shies away from Capote's faults  his selfish motivations for working on In Cold Blood, his drinking, his self-centeredness. Just the same, it challenges the audience to decide for itself the true nature of his actions. Was Capote in love with Smith? Did he help them secure legal aid out of charity or self-interest? Was he an eccentric artist consumed in his work or just a lousy friend, uncaring lover? And, of course, the film carries on the legacy of In Cold Blood itself. Capote's ability to uncover the duality of monstrosity and humanity in his subjects is an important lesson in a world that prefers to view its criminals and its heroes  in black and white.