Truman Capote used to be one of my favorite writers when I was younger, so as soon as I heard about the great reviews that the 2005 film Capote received, I couldn’t wait to see it. But I missed it when it was in theaters and then had trouble finding the DVD at my local video rental shop, so it took much longer than expected for me to finally get around to watching it. Here’s what I thought of director Bennett Miller’s vision.
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The movie begins its story in the year 1959. Capote (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) was already a famous writer thanks to the success of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Other Voices, Other Rooms, and also to the fact that he was such an odd, flamboyant character. He craved society and attention, and he got it. In fact, Capote was “famous for being famous” — something that these days we attribute to people like Paris Hilton. (I am NOT comparing Hilton to Capote in a strict sense here. After all, he did have literary merit!)
Then one morning in November 1959, Capote read a news article about a horrific crime in Holcomb, Kansas: four members of the Clutter family were brutally murdered in the middle of the night in what was supposed to be a quiet, peaceful community. Herbert, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon Clutter were all bound and all were executed with a shotgun blast to the face. Capote was intrigued by this story, and decided to write an article about it for The New Yorker.
He then goes out to Kansas with his good friend Nelle Harper Lee (Catherine Keener) to do some research for his project. Capote ends up staying there for several months, and is on hand when two suspects, Richard “Dick” Hickock (Mark Pellegrino) and Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.) are arrested. The men confess to the killings, but that’s not enough for Capote. He is deeply interested in the psychology of the crime and wants to know why they did it.
Capote enjoys unlimited prison visits, and soon becomes friendly with Perry Smith. In reading nonfiction accounts of Capote’s research in Kansas, many people speculated that he actually fell in love with Smith. But this is pretty subtle in the movie and I never would have guessed anything of the kind if other characters in the film hadn’t come right out and said, “Are you in love with him?” or whatever.
At first, Capote is genuinely interested in helping Hickock and Smith, and even gets a new lawyer for them. But as their death sentence drags on (thereby leaving Capote without an ending for his book), he starts getting tired of them, avoiding them, etc. The rest of the film then deals with Capote’s guilt over his part in the whole thing.
My reaction: I actually thought this movie was pretty boring. As I said, I was really looking forward to this one because I used to be such a Capote fan, but I didn’t like the result here. I know I’m in the minority because most professional critics gave this film such high marks, but what can I do.
I was more interested in Capote’s relationship with Harper Lee than in his relationship with the two killers. I loved the scenes between Hoffman and Keener, and wanted more of those. Hoffman and Collins Jr, on the other hand, practically put me to sleep. All of the struggles that Capote went through because of his relationship with the killers were mostly internal, so I didn’t think this made for a very good film subject.
Overall, I give Capote just 6.5 stars out of 10. I was hoping for so much more from this film, and was rather disappointed with what I saw.