Post by Pulpmariachi on Nov 21, 2005 0:12:00 GMT -5
That Truman Capote!
He was a total writer/playboy, loved by the press, writer of Breakfast at Tiffany's. He was flamboyant, sophisticated, fun, but above all he was a great writer and a determined one.
The film follows the development and writing of his most famous work, pretty much the invention of the true-crime genre, the "non-fiction novel," In Cold Blood (good, intense book by the way, you should read it).
One morning while lounging around his home and reading the New York Times, Mr. Truman Capote comes across an article about a Kansas family that was brutally murdered. He sees an opportunity and calls up his bosses at The New Yorker, pitching an article. He goes to Kansas and gets the basic jist of how the unknown town of Holcomb is feeling. He goes out with his childhood friend Harper Lee, yes the Harper Lee, who wrote one of the greatest American novels of the 20th century: To Kill a Mockingbird (a book which I don't think any public school student has gone without reading).
Then the murderers are captured. And after talking to them, Capote decides to hell with an article, he's going to write a book! So he sets out to do so, with Lee at his side. He befrends the murderers, Richard Hickcock and Perry Smith, and kinda falls in love with Smith. He interviews them extensively, providing them with literary gifts (actually, smut magazines for Hickcock and Therou for Smith) and lawyers to apeal their case, to make them live longer so he can finish his book.
What can be said at this point about Philip Seymour Hoffman's Truman Capote at this point that hasn't been said already? There's hardly anything. He's not a splitting image of Capote but looks enough like him to be somewhat convincing, and it helps greatly that he channels Capote, getting his mannerisms, his voice, his behavior, everything down. It's a brilliant performacne. Yet it's one of those kind that's great but so easy to make fun of. The guy I went to the theater with and I had some laughs, though, it's still brilliant and Oscar-worthy.
The movie works as Capote's life. It starts off high with great fun, then falls into depression and bitterness. He drives himself mad writing this book. You feel the madness. You feel for him, though he's exploiting everyone for his book, yet still somehow cares about them. If that even makes sense.
The supporting roles are great too. Chris Cooper does the characters he does best: the gruff man. Cathleen Keener does a great Harper Lee, though she seems a little indifferent, and Bruce Greenwood plays his lover Jack Dumphry, who is having an annoyance/jealousy thing going on with Truman.
Sometimes the film feels a little too long, but it quickly overcomes this and moves on, leaving those scenes forgotten.
Yes, it's a powerul film and a great one. Making the last three films I've seen in theaters (Good Night, and Good Luck., Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and this one) some of the best of this year. It doesn't really look like anything else will top these, except for Spielberg's upcoming Munich.
***1/2 /****
He was a total writer/playboy, loved by the press, writer of Breakfast at Tiffany's. He was flamboyant, sophisticated, fun, but above all he was a great writer and a determined one.
The film follows the development and writing of his most famous work, pretty much the invention of the true-crime genre, the "non-fiction novel," In Cold Blood (good, intense book by the way, you should read it).
One morning while lounging around his home and reading the New York Times, Mr. Truman Capote comes across an article about a Kansas family that was brutally murdered. He sees an opportunity and calls up his bosses at The New Yorker, pitching an article. He goes to Kansas and gets the basic jist of how the unknown town of Holcomb is feeling. He goes out with his childhood friend Harper Lee, yes the Harper Lee, who wrote one of the greatest American novels of the 20th century: To Kill a Mockingbird (a book which I don't think any public school student has gone without reading).
Then the murderers are captured. And after talking to them, Capote decides to hell with an article, he's going to write a book! So he sets out to do so, with Lee at his side. He befrends the murderers, Richard Hickcock and Perry Smith, and kinda falls in love with Smith. He interviews them extensively, providing them with literary gifts (actually, smut magazines for Hickcock and Therou for Smith) and lawyers to apeal their case, to make them live longer so he can finish his book.
What can be said at this point about Philip Seymour Hoffman's Truman Capote at this point that hasn't been said already? There's hardly anything. He's not a splitting image of Capote but looks enough like him to be somewhat convincing, and it helps greatly that he channels Capote, getting his mannerisms, his voice, his behavior, everything down. It's a brilliant performacne. Yet it's one of those kind that's great but so easy to make fun of. The guy I went to the theater with and I had some laughs, though, it's still brilliant and Oscar-worthy.
The movie works as Capote's life. It starts off high with great fun, then falls into depression and bitterness. He drives himself mad writing this book. You feel the madness. You feel for him, though he's exploiting everyone for his book, yet still somehow cares about them. If that even makes sense.
The supporting roles are great too. Chris Cooper does the characters he does best: the gruff man. Cathleen Keener does a great Harper Lee, though she seems a little indifferent, and Bruce Greenwood plays his lover Jack Dumphry, who is having an annoyance/jealousy thing going on with Truman.
Sometimes the film feels a little too long, but it quickly overcomes this and moves on, leaving those scenes forgotten.
Yes, it's a powerul film and a great one. Making the last three films I've seen in theaters (Good Night, and Good Luck., Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and this one) some of the best of this year. It doesn't really look like anything else will top these, except for Spielberg's upcoming Munich.
***1/2 /****
