Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a super early look at Phillip Seymour Hoffman's CAPOTE, based on the life of eccentric Truman Capote. I love me some Capote... he was a weird little man, but goddamn if his performance in one of my all time favorite movies MURDER BY DEATH doesn't make me smile. "It! It is confusing! Say your goddamn pronouns!" hehe
From the sound of things, the film could use some work. Keep in mind this is a rough cut, so it has a ton of time to find its beats. I, for one, can't wait to see Hoffman's performance. I love his look in the poster. Fingers crossed!
This screened in Boston a few weeks back and I stumbled into the screening by accident. It was a rough cut, with temp music and two hours long.
Let me say, up front, that "Capote" will get good reviews from a certain type of critic and will absolutely kill for the target demographic, middle-aged couples looking for "adult, serious" movies. Sony Pictures Classics will make its money back. "Adult, serious" excludes "fun", apparently.
First, Phillip Seymour Hoffman. He knocks it out the park. I've studied Capote a little, and he IS Truman Capote. As mimicry goes it's a brilliant performance.
The problem is twofold; Capote was never a likeable guy and he had a voice that was like nails on a chalkboard. Both of which Hoffman nails but unfortunately means we're bereft of somebody to so much as like in the script and the hero gets on our nerves whenever he opens his mouth. Also, it's such a showy role that Hoffman flattens everybody whenever he shares the screen; annoying or not that voice attracts attention.
The movie also tries to make us care for Perry Smith and then shows him...well...you've read "In Cold Blood." The cast is very solid, although Chris Cooper could have been given much more to do. He plays Alvin Dewey, and doesn't have enough screentime, frankly.
Scriptwise, there's no humor, nothing to leaven the proceedings, and it also suffers because we don't really need Capote's viewpoint on "In Cold Blood", which is what this movie is trying to be when it's not either going the bland biopic route or trying to be "Dead Man Walking." Apparently they really wanted to show Truman suffering through the whole thing right down to his inexorable slide into drunkenness (the last forty-five minutes he has a drink in his hand whenever feasible; I'm surprised they didn't give him a flask at the hanging.) Dan Futterman did not do a good job on this one.
Directorally, the actors are handled very well, but visually, this movie is flat. The only time it comes to life is when the Klutter murders are re-enacted; the rest of the time the camera sits on the tripod and the editing is standard cable-movie all the way. This might simply be budget constraints; they spent quite a bit on the actors, I suspect. Which also might explain the fact that the movie felt a lot like "Point the camera at Phil until I say cut."
A memo to the director, Bennett Miller, for the love of GOD, cut at least ten minutes. We don't need to have details about Capote from 1961 to 1965. Compress time. What made me write all those negative comments on the card was the fact that my ass was numb and I was bored by the blatant setup I was being walked through.
Expect Sony to push hard, and rightly, for Hoffman as Best Actor. In fact, the entire movie is basically Hoffman pushing for an Oscar. But the movie itself is not good enough, I feel, to merit any sort of Oscar attention. This movie is like eating raw tofu; it's supposedly "good for you", but it's flavorless and ultimately unpleasant.
Call me The Man Himself
