What Makes Hoffman's Performance Amazing

Rating: 9/10 (7 February 2006)

The most amazing thing about Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of Truman Capote is that it has almost nothing to do with his mastery of the man's unforgettably precious speech or coy mannerisms. His true achievement is making those affectations disappear almost immediately beneath the skin of the most complex character Hoffman has ever played on screen. When Capote, the egomaniacal young city slicker, decides to explore how a sleepy Kansas town is affected when four members of one of its most prominent families are brutally murdered, he has no idea where the story will lead or the emotional toll that it will take on himself and those around him. In one of the convicted killers he finds a real life character beyond anything his mind could have conjured. But the fate of his book and that of its subject are inextricably linked and it can't turn out well for both. The commingled bravado and vulnerability with which Hoffman as Capote faces this paradox is his truly amazing feat.