Main Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Clifton Collins, Jr., Chris Cooper, Bruce Greenwood
Release Year: 2005
Country: US
Run Time: 115 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
The creation of one of the most memorable books of the 1960s -- and the impact the writing and research would have on its author -- is explored in this drama based on a true story. In 1959, Truman Capote (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) was a critically acclaimed novelist who had earned a small degree of celebrity for his work when he read a short newspaper item about a multiple murder in a small Kansas town. For some reason, the story fascinated Capote, and he asked William Shawn (Bob Balaban), his editor at The New Yorker, to let him write a piece about the case. Capote had long believed that in the right hands, a true story could be molded into a tale as compelling as any fiction, and he believed this event, in which the brutal and unimaginable was visited upon a community where it was least expected, could be just the right material. Capote traveled to Kansas with his close friend Harper Lee (Catherine Keener), herself becoming a major literary figure with the success of To Kill a Mockingbird, and while Capote's effete and mannered personal style stuck out like a sore thumb in Kansas, in time he gained the trust of Alvin Dewey (Chris Cooper), the Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent investigating the murder of the Clutter family, and with his help Capote's magazine piece grew into a full-length book. Capote also became familiar with the petty criminals who killed the Clutter family, Dick Hickock (Mark Pellegrino) and Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.), and in Smith he found a troubling kindred spirit more like himself than he wanted to admit. After attaining a sort of friendship with Smith under the assumption that the man would be executed before the book was ever published, Capote finds himself forced to directly confront the moral implications of his actions with regards to both his role in the man's death, and the way that he would be remembered. Capote also co-stars Bruce Greenwood as Capote's longtime companion Jack Dunphy, and Amy Ryan as Mary Dewey, Alvin's wife who became a confidante of Capote's. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Capote is spellbinding and awe-striking, an almost perfect film. This accomplishment is even more remarkable when you take into account that this is director Bennett Miller's first feature, producer/writer Dan Futterman's first film, and that it's adapted from Gerald Clarke's first full-length biography. The craftsmanship apparent in Capote is clever and quick, creating scenes that are sometimes bizarre or funny, but never heavy-handed. Without plodding speeches or Oscar-bait tantrums, Capote weaves together a hauntingly realistic portrait of the charismatic and the grotesque. The movie isn't about the slaying of a family in Kansas, and it's not about Perry Smith, the convicted killer in the case -- whom Capote became so famously close to while writing his book. When it comes right down to it, Capote isn't even really about the writing of that book -- though the bizarre process of it is detailed almost completely. The story of the film is eerily captivating, but in the end, its narratives are just the pieces that eventually come together to form an almost impossibly intimate psychological portrait of Truman Capote the man. Capote sheds a gradually overwhelming light on its subject, revealing with a quiet intensity how a man of such superhuman charm and skill could in fact be so crippled by a near sociopathic narcissism. The minimal awareness portrayed in Capote's character make him all the more intriguing and compelling, even as his power over another man's life ripples distantly in his consciousness as little more than a component of his success as a writer. This heartbreakingly real performance is what makes the film such a masterpiece, and denotes perhaps the most breathtaking turn in the film -- Philip Seymour Hoffman's. While Hoffman is far from a new face and has enjoyed a highly respected career in a multitude of films, a role of this magnitude is a first for him; the kind it's instantly certain that he will be remembered for. As a profile of the character's inner life, the aforementioned production team behind Capote most certainly pursued the project with the knowledge that it would fail without such a perfect fit. As a result, even Hoffman's tremendous success can be seen as a component in the synergy that made this one of the best films in years. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
Bob Balaban - William Shawn; Amy Ryan - Mary Dewey; Mark Pellegrino - Dick Hickock; Marshall Bell - Warden Marshall Krutch; Adam Kimmel - Richard Avedon; R.D. Reid - Roy Church; C. Ernst Harth - Lowell Lee Andrews; Harry Nelken - Sheriff Walter Sanderson; John MacLaren - Judge Roland Tate; Jim Shepard - Chaplain; Bob Huculak - New York Reporter; John B. Destry - Pete Holt; Kwesi Ameyaw - Porter; Allie Mickelson - Laura Kinney; Araby Lockhart - Dorothy Sanderson; Robert McLaughlin - Harold Nye; Kerr Hewitt - Danny Burke; Jeremy Dangerfield - Jury Foreman
Credit
Gordon Peterson - Art Director, Kyle Mann - Associate Producer, Dave Valleau - Associate Producer, Emily Ziff - Associate Producer, Kyle Irving - Associate Producer, Avy Kaufman - Casting, Elizabeth Greenberg - Casting, Kasia Walicka Maimone - Costume Designer, Richard O'Brien Moran - First Assistant Director, Bennett Miller - Director, Christopher Tellefsen - Editor, Dan Futterman - Executive Producer, Philip Seymour Hoffman - Executive Producer, Kerry Rock - Executive Producer, Danny Rosett - Executive Producer, Aldo Signoretti - Hair Styles, Bernie Narvey - Location Manager, Jacques Methe - Line Producer, Mychael Danna - Composer (Music Score), Pamela Atheyde - Makeup, Jess Gonchor - Production Designer, Adam Kimmel - Cinematographer, Ellen Rutter - Production Manager, Caroline Baron - Producer, William Vince - Producer, Michael Ohoven - Producer, Leon Johnson - Production Sound, Ron Bochar - Sound/Sound Designer, Dan Futterman - Screenwriter, John Barr - Gaffer, François Balcaen - Key Grip, Mark Stratton - Properties Master, Alanna Mills - Script Supervisor, Scott Rossell - Set Decorator, Maryam Decter - Set Decorator, Gerald Clarke - Book Author, Ronaldo Nacionales - Assistant Director
Capote is a 2005biographical film about Truman Capote, following the events during the writing of Capote's non-fiction book In Cold Blood. Philip Seymour Hoffman won several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Actor, for his critically acclaimed portrayal of the title role. The movie itself was based on the biography called Capote by Gerald Clarke. The movie was filmed mostly in Manitoba,[3] in the autumn of 2004, and was released on 30 September 2005, to coincide with what would have been Truman Capote's 81st birthday.
The movie opens in Kansas with the discovery of the dead bodies of four of the members of the Clutter family by a family friend. While reading The New York Times, Truman Capote is riveted by the story of the Clutters and calls William Shawn, then the editor of The New Yorker, to announce that he will personally document the tragedy.
He travels to Kansas with his childhood friend Harper Lee. Lee was then in the process of getting To Kill a Mockingbird written and published, which the film references several times. Capote sets about interviewing those involved with the victims, the Clutter family, with Lee as his go-between and interpreter of rural life. When the murderers are apprehended, Capote is initially brushed off by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation's lead detective on the case, Alvin Dewey. Dewey's wife, however, is a fan of Capote's writing and persuades him to invite Capote and Lee to their house for dinner. Mrs. Dewey is starstruck by Capote's stories of being on movie sets with film stars. Dewey warms up to Capote, which facilitates Capote's visits to the prison where the suspects (Perry Smith and Dick Hickock) are being held. Capote begins to form an attachment to Perry. Following their trial and conviction, Capote is able to gain access to the murderers by bribing the warden. Capote spends the following years regularly visiting Perry and learning about his life, excepting a year long stint where Capote abandons Perry and writes the "first three parts" of the book with Jack Dunphy in Morocco and Spain. The story of Perry's life, his upset and remorseful manner, and his emotional sincerity impress Capote. The writer becomes emotionally attached to Perry and feels sympathy for him, not withstanding his involvement in the murders. Perry refuses to tell Capote what happened on the night of the murders, which greatly angers the writer. Eventually, Perry tells him in great detail. The story becomes a meditation upon the need for redemption even in very grave circumstances.
The last appeal is rejected and Perry and Dick are hanged. Perry's hanging is explicitly shown. In the next scene Truman is talking to Harper Lee. He tells her of the horrifying experience and laments that he couldn't have done anything to stop it. She replies "Maybe not; the fact is you didn't want to." This is the last line of the film. The next and last scene shows Truman looking at photos and some of the writings and drawings that Perry gave him.
The movie showcases Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of the openly gay Southern author with his weaknesses for fame, alcohol, and attention. Capote became an international figure upon the release of the book In Cold Blood, which he would publish after Smith and Hickock were executed. Hoffman portrays Capote's conflict between personal literary ambitions and trying to maintain his role as a confidant to Perry, one of the two condemned killers.
Toronto Film Critics Association: Best First Feature — Bennett Miller, Best Performance, Male — Philip Seymour Hoffman, Best Supporting Performance, Female — Catherine Keener
