Capote

Philip Hoffman, Catherine Keener

Beautifully done treatment of the development of his masterpiece In Cold Blood. PH was masterful in his subtle, many-shaded portrayal of chat show freak Capote. At the time (1960's) few in the mainstream had ever encountered someone like him...a fact that was nicely brought out in the early scenes in the film when he first appears in Kansas.

But this was not a caricature...this was a fully-rounded person who was clever, incisive, poetic, fearful, empathetic, cowardly, frightfully narcissistic...a deeply unhappy man who ended up alienating all his rich supporters and drowning in a bottle.

Still, his book stands as a landmark in American letters and will be read for many generations...long after he has been forgotten.

The supporting cast...CK and Chris Cooper...were strangely subdued throughout...as was Capote...which heightened the sensitivity of the film and gave it a force it might have lacked.

I still prefer the Perry Smith turned in by Robert Blake in Richard Brooks' original adaption of the novel but this worked fine.

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