Capote: Review By kbelliveau

Truman Capote (Hoffman) hears of a family being Murdered in Kansas City and decides to write his next novel based on the facts of the murder. Truman explores the true identity of the killers and how they ended up brutally murdering the family in Kansas. Truman ends up bonding with one of the Killers Perry Smith (Collins Jr)

Truman Capote: It's as if Perry and I grew up in the same house. And one day he stood up and went out the back door, while I went out the front.

The Story takes place over the span of 6 years in the life of Truman Capote and told of journey he went on to write his book. In Cold Blood sent Truman Capote over the top as Far as an American Author, but it was the last book he ever worked. Working on In Cold Blood, also threw Capote into alcoholism which eventually took his life in 1984.

Truman Capote: On the night of November 14th, two men broke into a quiet farmhouse in Kansas and murdered an entire family. Why did they do that? Two worlds exist in this country: the quiet conservative life, and and the life of those two men - the underbelly, the criminally violent. Those two worlds converged that bloody night

Phillip Seymour Hoffman won the Oscar for this film, and it is safe to say he deserved it. Some people would disagree and say that he didn?t, but the performance was there. The Academy Awards tend to lean on Performances true to real life, and this was one of those performances. Hoffman did portray Capote in the way he was meant to be shown. Capote changed with the experience of writing In Cold Blood and that is where Hoffman really showed his brilliance. He was able to show Capotes slow but torturous spiral out of control. Hoffman was brilliant, he is a brilliant actor,who always grabs the audience with his emotionally driven performances.

Hoffman was brilliant but the film as a whole was not a brilliant film. It is good that Hoffman was recognized as an individual, but as a whole the film was a let down. The film was choppy, the scenes didn?t really fit together. They seemed to depict all these depressing events. The film was long and occasionally drawn out, with scenes where the Dialogue failed to grasp emotionally. Capote himself was a contradiction as a character. He failed to show me something that I could really get into. He said that he cared for Perry Smith, but he ultimately used him for his own greater good. This seems contradictory in a film version of a man whos work was celebrated and a man whose book made him large. Capote was shown in a light that didn?t work for a biopic. As a character he seemed to be heading in one direction and the director completely did a 360 and said Capote has basically been using Smith the entire time and that the characters shared no real emotional bond. The only problem was they continued the bond later on, with a sense of honesty that was actually a lie.

I was confused as to why Capote needed to lie to Perry Smith about the completion of his book. No real explanation to that. Capote knew that Smith had nothing to lose and could use a friend at that moment, so why Capote used him the way he did, will never make sense. The conclusion to the film seemed rushed as well. It was expectant that Capote would be shown in struggle which could have utilized Hoffman in another good way, but they chose to write it in words instead of show his emotional struggle to deal with the death of a man he had grown to love. This film was a bit of a let down and the film was saved by the sincere performance of Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Truman Capote: If I leave here without understanding you, the world will see you as a monster. Always. And I don't want that.

Truman Capote: Sometimes when I think of how good my book is going to be, I can't breathe