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Capote
Heart of Narcissism
2005
Review: October 12, 2005
Director: Bennett Miller
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Clifton Collins, Jr., Chris Cooper, Bruce Greenwood, Bob Balaban
As you like.
THE SETUP:
Biopic covers the section of Truman Capote's life during the writing of In Cold Blood.
DISCUSSION:
Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Truman Capote. The story picks up with him reading an article in the New York Times about a murder in Kansas, and he decides that this is something he wants to write about. He packs up his friend, novelist Harper Lee [about to publish To Kill a Mockingbird] and they head off. The movie works overtime at this point to establish Capote's narcissism and how Lee is on familiar terms with it.
Once in Kansas, it is Lee who is able to approach locals, as Capote's high voice and prickly manner drive the people away. But soon the both of them have made friends with the local Sheriff and the best friend of one of the victims, and various other people in town. After the killers are caught and brought back to town, Capote befriends them, telling them that he is going to tell their story.
He seems particularly interested in Perry Smith [I haven't read In Cold Blood or the biography that this movie is based on, so it's hard to tell how much time he actually spent with the other criminal], and Hoffman's fascinated expression upon first seeing him is very good. This is the second movie I've seen in a week [after Hellbent] that deals with the attraction some gay men have for dangerous men. At first it seems that Capote is interested in telling the killer's tale because he is so attracted to Smith, and there are certainly elements of this, though in the end it becomes much more than that. The killers begin to trust him and open up because Capote promises to get them new legal counsel, who may be able to overturn their death sentence.
Soon enough, however, it becomes clear that Capote sees the men more as a meal ticket than as friends, and that a lot of his actions on their behalf are merely because he needs them alive and trusting him in order to wring their story out of them. Harper Lee senses this first and is horrified. When asked how he sees Smith, Capote says "He's a goldmine."
As it goes on, there are issues with Capote's lover [a good Bruce Greenwood stepping away from the villain roles for a change], and Lee becomes more and more distant. The weight of the lies that Capote tells Smith in order to convince him to tell his story begin weighing more and more upon him, and the movie would have us believe that this is what turned Capote into the-whatever he was-for the rest of his life. It's a convincing argument. One example of this is that Capote comes upon his title 'In Cold Blood' quite early on, but consistently tells Smith that he hasn't settled on a title yet. One of the sections of the movie I found most interesting is when it begins to seem like Capote NEEDS the killers to die, because if they live longer he won't have an ending to his book, or they'll read sections of it and know he was lying to them.
The film is very good in that one starts out fairly sympathetic with Capote, but our experience mirrors that of Lee as we wake up to the fact that this guy only cares about himself and is willing to hurt anyone else-even those closest to him-in order to get what he wants and feed his own ego. It's rare to see a biographical movie that is so completely negative about its main character. But it makes a very good case, and it includes enough moral ambiguity and dimensions to the story that it is fascinating rather than seeming like an attack. Philip Seymour Hoffman was very good [I was not moved to the raptures about his performance that other critics are], but bigger surprises were Catherine Keener, whose Lee had a real grace and depth in her relatively short time, and Chris Cooper, who also rounded out his character beautifully in just a few scenes. Clifton Collins, Jr. is also excellent as Perry Smith.
This film was directed by Bennett Miller, whose only previous film was the documentary The Cruise. It was written by Dan Futterman, the star of Urbania, and a minor player in a bunch of other films. So one has a sense of peripheral players making good. The direction is good, but the writing is even better, as the ending brings up a wide variety of moral questions with multiple dimensions that this film can't help but linger on your mind.
SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?
Yes. It's good.
