Uncanny performance in enlightening film

Rating: 10/10 (30 December 2005)

In the seventies, I read the three or four installments of Capote's novel-in-progress, Answered Prayers. The connection of the installments was not clear, but the individual pieces, which could stand on their own as short stories, were breathtaking. Until the time of Capote's death, he assured everyone he was working on the novel, and then, posthumously, it was discovered that there was nothing more--not even an outline.
The segments of Answered Prayers were basically in the genre of "non-fiction novels," such as In Cold Blood, as the pieces were mostly based upon actual celebrities. I believe that the writing of In Cold Blood not only produced a piece that changed the nature of writing at that time, but it also took a terrible toll on Capote. I cannot help but think that the need for persons to die before he could complete the book, and the fact that the book required the betrayal of friends, all served to affect his future writing.
The parallel is there: Capote began work on In Cold Blood when he saw a news article of the deaths of four persons, and his objective was to look for an explanation. He could end his work on In Cold Blood only after the deaths of two more persons, and furnished the explanation for his inability to produce another complete work.
Mr. Hoffman's performance in this film is absolutely uncanny. Not only is he a gifted mimic of Capote's speech and mannerisms, but he is able to invest so much meaning without speech or mannerism. For example, the scene in which he says "goodbye." Earlier in the film, Capote speaks of his mother having abandoned him for her own reasons. In this goodbye scene, Capote obviously knows that he has already abandoned a friend, and that doing so is the inevitable prerequisite for a great personal success. Hoffman gets all of that across with "goodbye."
I never imagined that a film about writing could be this good. A definite ten, in my opinion.