Capote

Plot synopsis:
In 1959, the four dead bodies of the Clutter family are discovered on their Kansas farm. While reading The New York Times, Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is riveted by the story and calls The New Yorker magazine editor William Shawn (Bob Balaban) to tell him that he plans to document the tragedy.
Capote travels to Kansas, inviting childhood friend Nelle Harper Lee (Catherine Keener) to come along. He intends to interview those involved with the Clutter family, with Lee as his go-between and facilitator. Alvin Dewey (Chris Cooper), the Kansas Bureau of Investigation's lead detective on the case, brushes him off, but Dewey's wife Marie (Amy Ryan) is a fan of Capote's writing and persuades her husband to invite Capote and Lee to their house for dinner.
Capote's stories of movie sets and film stars captivate Marie. Over time, her husband warms to Capote and allows him to view the photographs of the victims. The Deweys, Lee, and Capote are having dinner when the murder suspects, Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.) and Richard "Dick" Hickock (Mark Pellegrino), are caught. Flattery, bribery, and a keen insight into the human condition facilitate Capote's visits to the prison where the accused are held.
Capote begins to form an attachment to Smith. He informs Shawn of his intent to expand the story into a full-length book. Following the trial and conviction, Capote gains continued access to the murderers by bribing Warden Marshall Krutch (Marshall Bell).
Capote spends the following years regularly visiting Smith and learning about his life, excepting a year-long stint when he goes to Morocco and Spain to write the "first three parts" of the book, accompanied by his romantic partner Jack Dunphy (Bruce Greenwood).
The story of Smith's life, his remorseful manner, and his emotional sincerity impress Capote, who becomes emotionally attached to him despite the gruesome murders. Capote aids Smith and Hickock by obtaining expert legal counsel for them and initiating an appeal. Still he is frustrated, as Smith declines to relate exactly what happened on the night of the murders.
Though initially an effort to provide proper representation and extend Capote's opportunity to speak with the killers, the appeals process drags on for several years. Without the court case being resolved, Capote feels he is stuck with a story without an ending, and he is unable to complete his book. Eventually he gets Smith to describe the killings and his thoughts at the time in great detail. He has what he wants from Smith, but in the process he sees a callousness and selfishness in his own actions.
Now with everything in hand, Capote still must wait for the appeals process to conclude before he feels he can publish his work. In the course of time, Lee's best-selling novel To Kill a Mockingbird is turned into a movie, but Capote is unable to share in the joy of his friend's success, too caught up in drinking through his own misery.
With the last appeal rejected, Smith pleads for Capote to return before he is executed, but Capote cannot bring himself to do so. A telegram from Smith to Harper Lee ultimately compels Capote to return to Kansas. There he is an eyewitness as Smith and Hickock are executed.
Capote talks to Lee about the horrifying experience and laments that he could not do anything to stop it. She replies, "Maybe not. The fact is you didn't want to." The final scenes show Capote looking through photos from the case and at the writings and drawings given to him by Smith. An epilogue points out that In Cold Blood turned Capote into the most famous writer in America, also noting that he never finished another book.

Tags: violence, boring, historical, murder, romantic

Review:
Like the non-fiction novel and the Richard Brooks film that was made from it, "In Cold Blood," "Capote" focuses on and sympathizes with two killers at the expense of the four murdered members of the Clutter family.
Unlike the book and the original movie, "Capote" does explore the contradictory feelings that author Truman Capote wrestles with as he researches and writes "In Cold Blood." His feelings for Perry Smith, the more "sensitive" of the two killers, are particularly problematic as Capote becomes emotionally close to Smith and helps the men with legal aide that postpones the executions, while at the same time Capote cannot finish his book until Smith and Hickcock are hanged.
Praise for Philip Seymour Hoffman's uncanny performance as Truman Capote cannot be overstated and, come awards time, if he does not collect enough accolades to fill his mantel, indictments for film critics and Academy voters would be in order.
The film focuses on Capote's research on the book "In Cold Blood" and the personal journey that his relationship and identification with killer Perry Smith became (Capote says at one point that it was like they grew up in the same house, and he went out the front door while Perry went out the back), a compelling and complicated relationship that this uncompromising film presents in moving detail.
But what truly makes it a unique work of art is the brilliant work of Hoffman - always an interesting actor - whose performance as Truman Capote should elevate him to the pantheon of film giants..
By gaining their trust, Capote is able to put together his best selling book "In Cold Blood", which will revolutionize American letters in the way the two criminals are portrayed.Truman Capote, while pursuing the completion of his book, doesn't come clean to Perry Smith.
In fact, when questioned about things he has learned, Capote gives evasive answers because he is not prepared to share with his main subject things that clearly should have been clarified from the start.Watching the brilliant take of Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote on the screen, brought to mind another great actor, Meryl Streep, who like Mr. Hoffman is a chameleon in the interpretation of a character.
CAPOTE, first of all, is a well written film by the talented Dan Futterman, whose performance in URBANIA we will always remember, and for Philip Seymour Hoffman, this is his "Golden Globe and Oscar Award" all in one.
From the first scene, Hoffman creates the essence of the acid tongued, tremendously talented, yet damaged, Truman Capote.Having read IN COLD BLOOD when it first came out, CAPOTE really captures on the screen the horror of what took place on that Kansas farm and the cinematography, costumes and locations are wonderful to behold.
Miss Keener's performance is such a subtle and intelligent contrast to the hysteria of Capote, and his perfect foil.In the scenes with Perry Smith, they are haunting and disturbing, as if it feels like two cobras are circling one another, waiting for the first one to strike.
I saw a press screening of this film recently, and was highly impressed by its moving account of the period in Truman Capote's life during which he wrote 'In Cold Blood'.
Cooper plays K.B.I. Agent Alvin Dewey with perhaps a bit too much intensity, given his relatively small amount of screen time, but the portrayal nonetheless comes off as heart-felt.The cinematography by Adam Kimmel is suitably gray and moody, with many evocative views of the flat Kansas plains, but most of the screen time is spent with the camera focused on Hoffmann - all of it time well spent.While I haven't read the biography by Gerald Clarke on which it's based, the script seems to hit enough salient details to evoke Capote's frame of mind, without inundating the audience with more than would fit in a feature-length film.
Philip Seymour Hoffman's once-in-a-lifetime performance is simply jaw-dropping (and he's aware of it): it's a triumph of vocal and body work, with a huge range (mentally and emotionally), but above all it sparkles with supremely intelligent acting in portraying the lizard man with the 215-point I.Q. and the 1,000,000-point ego.The film focuses entirely on the circumstances concerning the genesis of Truman Capote's masterpiece "In Cold Blood" (the title that had, of course, a double meaning, as it described both the set of mind of the 1959 Kansas harrowing criminals and of Capote himself in his Machiavellian saga to finally complete his book).
The film concentrates on Capote's transformation from lightweight literary wunderkind and jet-set wit to trend-setting, seriously talented writer, depicting the Faustian/Mephistophelian process he goes through as he realizes that, in order to produce his ground-breaking "non-fiction novel" -- which helped consolidate American media's fascination with violence, death and crime -- he has to sink deeply in muddy waters of manipulation, adulation, mendacity, bribery, omission, ultimately having to face the ugliest side of himself, like a modern Dorian Gray.
The audience goes to see the film pretty much aware that Capote's (and the screenwriter's) wit and Hoffman's performance are the core of it, and no one was asking for an action movie, but did it have to look so bland?
Despite the fascinating subject, a great performance and above-average dialog, Miller's "Capote" disappointingly looks like a TV movie.Apart from those (not trifle) objections, "Capote" is recommended for all of us who thought wit, subtlety and acting excellence had all but disappeared from American films.
There is no exploration of the theme of capital punishment, no reflection on the content of his novel 'In cold blood', no volley of ideas between subject and writer, but only a by numbers recount of events and perhaps a feeling of irritation towards Capote as a cowardly, egotistical, lime light hugging snob of the New York elite.This is not award winning material, this is an average account of an interesting figure during an integral time in his career.
I felt the movie was pretty poorly put together, to be quite frank about it.Although it's a biography of the writer, the film covers the time Capote spent researching and writing his magnum opus, In Cold Blood, from his assignment by The New Yorker to cover the legal proceedings to the final publication of his "nonfiction novel," several years later.
Trepidation and dread haunt the screen from the glimpses of the crime scene, deep in the heartland (Manitoba beautifully standing in for Kansas) where we gradually become aware of violence frozen in isolation, recalling that this crime helped set up the template for portrayals of horror.The sudden shift to Truman Capote's milieu in New York City is a jarring juxtaposition but is equally spooky because with Philip Seymour Hoffman's brilliantly uncanny portrayal we are literally seeing an apparition.
While it is a bit frustrating at first as we get almost no insight into what attracted Capote to the story, especially as we see the details of him getting organized, embarking on a long train ride into his heart of darkness and being initially brushed off by the locals, but the pay off eventually comes, if very slowly.There's initial jokes on the puffed-up dandy in anti-wonderland who owes a great debt to his old Southern friend the soon to be noted novelist Harper Lee (a no nonsense Catherine Keener) for regularly puncturing his pretenses and briskly bridging the cultural gap so he can begin worming his way into the community's trust (and getting condescended to in return about her book and the movie adaptation and dryly dismissed by his lover as more "manly" than he is).
I didn't start to take seriously that the point of the film was "In Cold Blood"s effect on him until we see him sneak into the funeral home and start to psychologically absorb the murders and challenge folks to take him seriously despite his way of talking and affected mannerisms.A key transitional scene is almost bizarre when Capote's fame does help him here, as the wife of Chris Cooper's solid, clear-eyed, suspicious sheriff, Amy Ryan in a very atypical for her '50's housewife role, gushes over the writer in their midst (even though his books had been banned from the local library) and brokers credibility to get him crucial, exclusive contact with the still not charmed investigators and, suddenly, with one of the murderers.
Amidst perfect recreations of the late '50's, we see Capote learn to manipulate his fame to get him further access, that is a harbinger of celebrity journalists to come.The film then shifts to an extended "Dead Man Walking" chapter, as Capote enters into a symbiotic relationship with Perry Smith, seductively and captivatingly played by Clifton Collins Jr, particularly in the build up to trying to understand the actual crime.
but sometimes him playing an affected man looks just like affected actor chewing on the scenery.no characters in the movie other than capote are much more than placeholders - nell, jack, perry, shawn, the sheriff are all one-dimensional.yes the film shows the manipulative, preening, dishonest sides of capote.
I finally got to see the Best Actor performance of Philip Seymour Hoffman as the late writer and icon Truman Capote.
Philip Seymour Hoffman is a great actor and he hadn't been as appreciated as he deserved.But fortunately,that has changed with Capote.Hoffman's performance on this movie is really spectacular.Capote is a very good film about the great writer Truman Capote.I have to say that Catherine Keener makes a great performance.The film's frailty is that it's a bit dull for a brief moment,but fortunately,it quickly recovers the rhythm.Dan Futterman made a good script,because he made a concise and detailed work.Capote is a very interesting film and it is the consecration of a great actor like Hoffman.Rating: 8.
A visually subtle way to begin a movie that ultimately reveals the conflicts and contrasts between our past and present worlds.As a writer, Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) was a keen observer of people and found ways of getting people to tell him things they probably never would have, or should have.
His drunken self-indulgence and insecurities show during the scene of the premiere of "To Kill A Mockingbird" written by his friend, confidant, and research assistant, Nelle Harper Lee. There were a lot of elements to the real story that the film's running time just did not allow to be fully developed or discovered; I would be interested to see follow-up movies, not really sequels, that take a closer look at some of these elements, such as, what happened to Jack Dunphy and Nelle Harper Lee?
Look for Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote,to receive an Oscar, with nominations for Cathrine Keener as Harper Lee and Clifton Collins Jr. as Perry Smith.
Philip Seymour Hoffman expertly emulates Capote's famous mannerisms, idiosyncrasies and countless flaws as he moves throughout the movie.We watch as Capote becomes entrenched in a world of darkness and deceit, and observe him making his own difficult decisions regarding two dangerous strangers whom he studies and eventually truly befriends; his less than reliable character as he deals with his lover (Bruce Greenwood) and childhood best friend (Catherine Keener); and his denial and disbelief when faced with his own problems and faults that consistently keep the audience empathetic and understanding.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman gives depth and complexity to a controversial cosmopolitan that will always be remembered through his books and the movies that came out of them (not to mention his wild man reputation.) Capote examines Truman Capote's life during the writing of perhaps his most celebrated work, In Cold Blood.
He develops a complicated and deep relationship with one of the felons, Perry Edward Smith (Clifton Collins Jr,) This film humanizes Truman Capote and forces the audience to see through his eyes to the point where you want the murderers who so brutally killed the happy Kansas family of four escape punishment.
Hoffman and Keener were great together but there was no where near enough of them on screen together.Sadly a great performance doesn't make a great film, Capote is slow and tedious and feels like a long novel itself, dragging from point to point..
The superb screenplay by Dan Futterman based on the book by Gerald Clarke in turn based on that part of the life of Truman Capote when he was obsessed with writing his final and finest novel 'In Cold Blood', and the extraordinary directing by Bennett Miller who influenced a fine production crew and coaxed brilliant performances from his cast is all a well established fact.
This is not only a superb film; it is also an equally superb DVD package.Philip Seymour Hoffman as the idiosyncratic author Truman Capote probes the psyche of this strange but gifted writer from his first newspaper clipping of the November 15, 1959 brutal murders of the Clutter family in Holbrook through his immersion in the tiny Kansas town accompanied by his friend and fellow writer Harper Lee (Catherine Keener) absorbing the atmosphere where such a deed could happen, ingratiating himself with investigator Alvin Dewey (Chris Cooper) and his wife Marie (Amy Ryan) to gain access to information that will eventually result in material for his projected book.
It's interesting to watch the Capote character grow from this self-absorbed author just using his "subjects" to write the best book of his life, to a person who actually cares about his "subject" - in particular, Perry Smith.
I actually censored my eyes during the re-enactment of the Clutter killings at the end of this film.The momentary screen shots of the flat barren Kansas plain were beautiful to look at yet so lonely and stark.As for Capote himself, it was as if he was executed along with Perry- just not by hanging, but by alcohol.I kept wanting to see Harper Lee get more recognition but luckily we all knew what became of her book/movie.
Famed New Yorker writer/socialite Truman Capote (played beyond comprehension by the seemingly always wonderful Philip Seymour Hoffman) gets interested in a killing of a Kansas farm family in late 1959 and decides to go down south with childhood friend Catherine Keener in tow to write a book about the happenings.
I wish this were overall a better movie.If you are not very familiar with Truman Capote, Nell Harper Lee, The New Yorker, To Kill a Mockingbird, or In Cold Blood, this film does not provide enough context.
He was quick-witted, caustic and nobody's fool.I've just come from seeing Phillip Seymour Hoffman starring in a movie about a few years in the life of Capote while he was working on "In Cold Blood" and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that his performance sent chills through me.
Bennett Miller, who is still under forty, does an admirable job in directing such marvelous actors as the above-mentioned Hoffman, and also Catherine Keener and Chris Cooper to mention just a few of the outstanding cast.On the surface the story is straightforward wherein Capote writes an article (a preamble to the eventual novel) for the New Yorker magazine about a dreadful multiple homicide in the town of Hokum in Kansas.
Actually one of the first scenes of the film is Truman Capote traveling by train with his dear friend Harper Lee, the author of the immortal classic 'To Kill a Mockingbird' (played nicely by indie favorite Catherine Keener).
- Traffic), who Capote develops a close relationship to, but tries not to become to emotionally involved with because he is on death row.Like I said before, the best thing by far about this film is Hoffman's beyond powerful performance as the extremely swishy and almost creepy Truman Capote.
The murder's occurred close to the small town of Holcomb in Kansas in November, 1959 and the entire film has this sombre grey November feel to it (except the scenes of Truman vacationing in Spain).Phillip Seymour Hoffman gives a complex and emotional portrayal of Capote – we see him as journalist, friend, raconteur, life of the party, and writer.
An Oscar, Golden-Globe, SAG & BAFTA, Award-Winning Performance, that is above any compliment.'Capote' is a biographical film about Truman Capote, following the events during the writing of Capote's non-fiction book 'In Cold Blood'.Truman Capote is a really interesting person, and he comes alive on Screen as Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
Capote (2005) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) travels to Kansas to get the story on a couple guys who executed a farmer, his wife and two children and these events would create the best seller 'In Cold Blood' but it would have an even bigger impact on the author.
You believe you are watching the funny, quirky and sad Capote throughout.The film focuses on Capote's interest in the Clutter murders, immortalized in his book, "In Cold Blood." Capote goes with his good friend, Harper Lee, who is not yet famous, to Holcomb, Kansas, in order to do an article for the New Yorker.
When he, and good friend (and sidekick for the film) Harper Lee arrive, what they find is something much more engrossing, something that changes Truman Capote for the rest of his life, and end in the best work he will ever write, In Cold Blood.Bennet Miller does not spend much time outside of Capote's obsession with his research for his novel, and that goes much appreciated.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman is a tour de force and I didn't see a better performance in the past year.Supporting parts are the characters who often make or break a film and someone who seems to have been over-looked in 'Capote' is Clifton Collins.
New Yorker writer Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) hears about the horrifying murders in Kansas.
A high point in the career of Phillip Seymour Hoffman was his Oscar winning portrayal of Truman Capote in the 2005 Bennett Miller film "Capote".
He needs to be done with this book and Perry.At the end of the film we are told that after writing "In Cold Blood" Truman Capote never finished another book and died from alcoholism in 1984.
Philip Seymour Hoffman gives the performance of his career: a nearly flawless, nuanced portrayal of American writer Truman Capote.