Capote
by Chris Dashiell

Judging by its title, one would expect Capote , the new film by Bennett Miller, to be a straightforward biopic about the brilliant and eccentric writer Truman Capote. Instead the movie just focuses on the five-year period in which Capote researched and wrote his best-selling nonfiction book, In Cold Blood . This is a risky strategy on the part of Miller and his screenwriter Dan Futterman, and as it turns out, an inspired one as well.

In 1959, a family of four is murdered in a small farm town in Kansas . Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) goes there with his friend Harper Lee (Catherine Keener) to write an article about the case for The New Yorker . When the two killers are captured, Capote is drawn further into the story, especially identifying with one of them, Perry Smith (Clifton Collins, Jr.), whose history of childhood neglect and abandonment seems to parallel his own. The article expands into a full-length book, and in exclusive interviews with Smith, Capote wins his trust. But the author's desire to finish the book, and to pry the secret of what really happened on the night of the murder from Smith, overshadows Capote's empathy and willingness to help, especially when legal appeals delay the killers' executions, dragging the case on indefinitely.

Hoffman duplicates Capote's unusual voice and mannerisms with remarkable skill, but the performance is much more than mimicry. He captures the spirit of this strange, tormented genius, with all his contradictions--the tenderness, charm, and need for attention, along with the callous, sometimes monstrous egotism. The story raises complex issues, and illuminates the dilemmas often faced by writers and journalists in their search for success. Capote's intense identification with his subject gives his work a greater force and urgency than it would otherwise have, but it also distorts his vision and inspires some dubious tactics. Ultimately he is faced with a choice between personal integrity and the completion of an important work that will make him world famous. Success is also linked with the death of a person who symbolizes a younger version of himself--surely an ethical situation fraught with agony. Capote lies to Smith repeatedly--about how far along he is on the book, the motives behind his writing, even the title--and the greatest lie is the pretense of friendship, which the killer is able to finally see through and apparently forgive, in a finale that shatters the author's composure.

It is the film's great virtue that the story's moral conflicts are not spelled out, but indicated through the action, the dialogue, and often just silent looks between the characters. Miller respects the audience's intelligence and knows that there's more to human nature than can be explained in words.

Although Hoffman dominates the picture (as is proper, considering Capote's dominating approach to his material, and his friends), the supporting work is fine. Catherine Keener displays a sort of ironic calm and equilibrium as Capote's best friend. I've never seen her play so softly before, and in fact it took me awhile to recognize her. Collins' work as Perry Smith is suitably ambiguous--seemingly vulnerable, yet impenetrable.