Capote [2005] - Sony Pictures Home Ent. UK

CAPOTE

THIS FILM IS GREAT. GREAT CASTING, WELL WRITTEN, GOOD SCREEN PLAY. IF YOU LIKE FILMS WITH SUBSTANCE......BUY IT

Cold and clinical - but not without merit

Technically flawless, clinically made. Sounds like a blueprint for a suspension bridge, but could also describe this movie...

On the positive side , the entire cast are amazing, particularly liked the Harper Lee character. Beautiful camera work, with the era captured perfectly. So far so good, pity these two ingredients don't guarantee a great movie.
The cast does'nt mesh despite steller individual performances, the relationship between Capote and the killers is painfully contrived. This is the core of the movie and its falls flat. The actors seem to sleepwalk through the film. The story is also laboured and dull. This should'nt happen given the rich source of material to draw from.

Half way through it runs out of ideas, the plot stalls and you simply watch it for completion. You don't enjoy it, but feel obligated to watch because the cast is so good.

I really admire a film maker trying to adopt an interesting angle. Instead of rehashing "In Cold Blood" there is a genuine attempt to shift focus and see the story through the eyes of Capote.

Its a pity this idea didn't translate into a great movie. Perhaps in the hands of a more capable director the result would have been different. Very frustrating.

The cold blooded writer

Roger Jon Ellory, who dedicated his masterpiece 'A Quiet Belief in Angels' to Truman Capote, urged me to see this film and within a few minutes of the start I could see why. I wanted to see it before I read the novel on which it is based, IN COLD BLOOD. This movie is not a lifetime biopic; instead it covers what were surely the most important five years in the life of one of the greatest American writers of his time, which he dedicated to writing what would become his last completed novel - although it was classified as non-fiction as it was based on real events.

I think you would benefit from a prior knowledge of Capote and who he was in order to enjoy this film. I can imagine that anyone knowing nothing about him might find it all rather uninteresting. But anybody with a curiosity to know more about this enigmatic, gregarious and highly intelligent man should find it captivating, due in no small part to the portrayal by Hoffman, who probably took a big risk by accepting the part because if he had got it wrong he could have been ridiculed for years. For example, there's Capote's very unusual voice; I must admit that I opted to have the subtitles switched on because I found it difficult at times to understand what Hoffman was saying, but later on when I watched the very interesting 'extras' on the DVD - which included an interview with Capote himself - I realised that the reproduction of his voice was remarkably accurate. It must have been very difficult to speak like that without sounding camp, but Hoffman never does. But the bigger insight into the character of the great man is discovered when the viewer realises that the relationship he has been developing with a convicted murderer on death row has been highly manipulative despite its origins of a sympathy and understanding for a young man troubled and isolated, as Capote clearly had been earlier in his own life. Basically, Capote wanted to control the killers' stay of execution to suit his own means, and when he eventually felt able to complete his book after more than four years in the making, and when he felt that he might have a nervous breakdown if it could not be finished off soon, he had the power and influence to speed up the execution. So the irony is that while the title of the novel leads you to think only of the ruthlessness of the killers, there is something of a double-entendre that Capote may or may not have been aware of: his own cold-bloodedness at determining how long two men should live, and when they should die.

It's hard to think of any other actor playing the part of Truman Capote, and there can really be no question that Philip Seymour Hoffman was a worthy winner of his Academy Award for Best Actor. He absolutely made this film what it is, although mention must be made of a perfect supporting cast and high-quality screenplay and direction.

Perhaps I just don't get it but...

...quite honestly I was just bored to tears all the way through the film.

I'm not an action-junkie either, I like all things deep and meaningful and thoughtprovoking and whatnot but to me 'Capote' was none of these things. It was really just never-ending and dull.

All the way through watching it I couldn't help but ponder about one matter: what on earth was it in the trailer that possessed me to want to watch it? I still don't know.

I'm sure it was beautifully made and beautifully played but does that automatically make it a good film? Not in my eyes.

Gripping portrait of false friendship

A gripping portrait of a false friendship, the irony of Capote is that its subject's ego renders him as cold as the killers he writes about. Truman Capote is cruel to Perry, abuses his trust, mocks his dreams and yet remains a sympathetic character thanks to his obvious genius and genuine wit.