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| CAPOTE 2005 - USA - 115 min. - Feature, Color Director -Bennett Miller |
| Genre/Type -Drama, Biography [feature], Crime Drama, Period Film Flags -Adult Situations, Profanity, Violence MPAA Rating -R Keywords -book, editor, murder, investigation, manipulation, novel, prison, publisher, murder-trial, writer Themes -Obsessive Quests, Writer's Life, Murder Investigations Tones -Melancholy, Reflective, Literate, Intimate, Gloomy, Talky Produced by -A-Line Pictures / Cooper's Town Productions / Infinity Media / United Artists Release -Sep 30, 2005 (USA - Limited) Released by -Sony Pictures Classics Street Date -Mar 21, 2006 Studio -Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Cast Philip Seymour Hoffman -- Truman Capote Catherine Keener -- Nelle Harper Lee Clifton Collins, Jr. -- Perry Smith Chris Cooper -- Alvin Dewey Bruce Greenwood -- Jack Dunphy Bob Balaban -- William Shawn Amy Ryan -- Mary Dewey Mark Pellegrino -- Dick Hickock Kwesi Ameyaw -- Porter John B. Destry -- Pete Holt Bob Huculak -- New York Reporter Kerr Hewitt -- Danny Burke Allie Mickelson -- Laura Kinney Robert McLaughlin -- Harold Nye Araby Lockhart -- Dorothy Sanderson |
| Plot Synopsis The creation of one of the most memorable books of the 1960s - and the impact the writing and research would have on its author - is explored in this drama based on a true story. In 1959, Truman Capote (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) was a critically acclaimed novelist who had earned a small degree of celebrity for his work when he read a short newspaper item about a multiple murder in a small Kansas town. For some reason, the story fascinated Capote, and he asked William Shawn (Bob Balaban), his editor at The New Yorker, to let him write a piece about the case. Capote had long believed that in the right hands, a true story could be molded into a tale as compelling as any fiction, and he believed this event, in which the brutal and unimaginable was visited upon a community where it was least expected, could be just the right material. Capote traveled to Kansas with his close friend Harper Lee (Catherine Keener), herself becoming a major literary figure with the success of To Kill a Mockingbird, and while Capote's effete and mannered personal style stuck out like a sore thumb in Kansas, in time he gained the trust of Alvin Dewey (Chris Cooper), the Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent investigating the murder of the Clutter family, and with his help Capote's magazine piece grew into a full-length book. Capote also became familiar with the petty criminals who killed the Clutter family, Dick Hickock (Mark Pellegrino) and Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.), and in Smith he found a troubling kindred spirit more like himself than he wanted to admit. After attaining a sort of friendship with Smith under the assumption that the man would be executed before the book was ever published, Capote finds himself forced to directly confront the moral implications of his actions with regards to both his role in the man's death, and the way that he would be remembered. Capote also co-stars Bruce Greenwood as Capote's longtime companion Jack Dunphy, and Amy Ryan as Mary Dewey, Alvin's wife who became a confidante of Capote's. - Mark Deming, AMG Reviews Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide |
| Capote is spellbinding and awe-striking, an almost perfect film. This accomplishment is even more remarkable when one takes into account that this is the director's first feature film, the producer/writer's first film at all, and that it is adapted from a writer's debut novel. The craftsmanship apparent in Capote is deft and adroit, creating scenes that are sometimes bizarre or funny, but never heavy-handed. This is not a movie about the slaying of a family in Kansas that prompted Truman Capote to write In Cold Blood, and it is not about Perry Smith, the convicted killer in the case, whom Capote became so famously close to while writing his book. The story behind the murders is secondary to the film's portrait of Capote himself; a man inherently gifted in communicating both interpersonally and through his writing, but in the end, a man so crippled by a near sociopathic narcissism that he is able to wash his hands of another man's life in pursuit of his own goals. His very minimal awareness of the moral implications of his choices make this psychological portrait both chillingly and heartbreakingly real, leading to perhaps the most breathtaking first-time work by anyone in the film - Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman has enjoyed a highly respected career in a multitude of films, but like most actors has never played a role like this. Capote is carried almost completely by Hoffman's performance and was obviously designed with this in mind. It is foremost a profile of the protagonist's mind, and without an actor who could master both the characterizations of an eccentric role and the subtext of a character's inner life, the film most certainly would have floundered. James Berardinelli |
| Capote tells two stories, presenting both without hiccups. The first is an expos� of how the title author's In Cold Blood was written. The second shows the emotional and psychic dissolution of the man who starts out the film as a brilliant eccentric and finishes it as a basket case. In Cold Blood made Truman Capote a household name, and led to him being ranked as one of the greatest American writers. It also destroyed him. He would never complete another book and, less than 20 years after finishing In Cold Blood, he would die of a drug overdose. Great authors often live unhappy lives. After his experiences putting together his legacy work, Capote's became almost unbearable. Bennett Miller's motion picture shows how obsession and self-absorption developed from personality traits into personal demons. Capote opens in 1959. The title character (Philip Seymour Hoffman), tired of writing fiction, has decided to investigate four Kanas murders as a possible subject for a non-fiction article in the New Yorker magazine. With him, he takes his good friend, Nelle Harper Lee (Catherine Keener), who has recently completed her manuscript for To Kill a Mockingbird. The local police chief (Chris Cooper) offers reluctant cooperation. After the killers - Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.) and Richard Hickock (Mark Pellegrino) - are captured, Capote's interviews with Perry result in a twisted form of bonding and co-dependency. There is manipulation and empathy on both sides. At one point, Truman remarks, "It's as if Perry and I grew up in the same house. One day, I went out the front door and he went out the back." Eventually, with the appeals process prolonging the execution of the death penalty, Truman reaches the point where he wants Perry to be hanged so this nightmarish phase of his life can reach closure. "All I want to do is write the ending, and there's no end in sight," he laments. One cannot write about this film without tossing superlatives in the direction of Philip Seymour Hoffman, whose performance will earn him an Oscar nomination. Hoffman doesn't merely imitate Capote. He inhabits him with an intensity that demands acknowledgement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Catherine Keener, Chris Cooper, and Clifton Collins Jr. offer support, but this is Hoffman's movie from start to finish. Underrated for most of his career, this role will allow him to take his turn in the spotlight. Capote is a deep movie with rich veins to mine. The lead character is not likeable. He is a user who exploits his relationship with Perry for personal gain. At the beginning, he doesn't know what it will ultimately cost him. As the movie develops, we see the complex love-and-hate association with Perry and how this results in the slow erosion of Capote's personality. The brilliance of Bennett's movie is that it concentrates on the characters and their interaction and never becomes a mouthpiece for one side or the other with respect to the death penalty. It would have been easy to turn Capote into a polemic, but Bennett resists the urge. Although I had a stronger connection with Capote on an intellectual level than on an emotional level (I never came close to shedding a tear), the experience stayed with me for some time. That's unusual for something I see for the first time in the midst of a film festival. (In this case, Toronto.) Normally, movies falling into a mid-day slot leave a minimal aftertaste before being washed away by the next feature, but not this one. Capote is strong medicine that will demand recognition at next year's Oscars. Awards Best Actor (nom) -Philip Seymour Hoffman -2005 -Academy Best Adapted Screenplay (nom) -Dan Futterman -2005 -Academy Best Director (nom) -Bennett Miller -2005 -Academy Best Picture (nom) - -2005 -Academy Best Supporting Actress (nom) -Catherine Keener -2005 -Academy Best Picture (win) - -2005 -American Film Institute Best Actor (win) -Philip Seymour Hoffman -2005 -Boston Society of Film Critics Best Screenplay (win) -Dan Futterman -2005 -Boston Society of Film Critics Best Supporting Actress (win) -Catherine Keener -2005 -Boston Society of Film Critics Best Actor (nom) -Philip Seymour Hoffman -2005 -British Academy Awards Best Adapted Screenplay (nom) -Dan Futterman -2005 -British Academy Awards Best Director (nom) -Bennett Miller -2005 -British Academy Awards Best Picture (nom) - -2005 -British Academy Awards Best Supporting Actress (nom) -Catherine Keener -2005 -British Academy Awards Best Actor (win) -Philip Seymour Hoffman -2005 -Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Picture (nom) - -2005 -Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Screenplay (nom) -Dan Futterman -2005 -Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress (nom) -Catherine Keener -2005 -Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Actor (win) -Philip Seymour Hoffman -2005 -Chicago Film Critics Association Best Screenplay (nom) -Dan Futterman -2005 -Chicago Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress (nom) -Catherine Keener -2005 -Chicago Film Critics Association Most Promising Director (win) -Bennett Miller -2005 -Chicago Film Critics Association Best Actor (win) -Philip Seymour Hoffman -2005 -Dallas-Ft. Worth Film Critics Associati Best Supporting Actress (win) -Catherine Keener -2005 -Dallas-Ft. Worth Film Critics Associati Top Ten Film (win) - -2005 -Dallas-Ft. Worth Film Critics Associati Best Director (nom) -Bennett Miller -2005 -Directors Guild of America Best Actor - Drama (win) -Philip Seymour Hoffman -2005 -Golden Globe Best Actor (nom) -Philip Seymour Hoffman -2005 -Independent Spirit Award Best Cinematography (nom) -Adam Kimmel -2005 -Independent Spirit Award Best Picture (nom) - -2005 -Independent Spirit Award Best Screenplay (nom) -Dan Futterman -2005 -Independent Spirit Award Producers Award (nom) -Caroline Baron -2005 -Independent Spirit Award Best Actor (nom) -Philip Seymour Hoffman -2005 -Iowa Film Critics Association Best Actor (nom) -Philip Seymour Hoffman -2005 -Kansas City Film Critics Association Best Actor (win) -Philip Seymour Hoffman -2005 -L.A. Film Critics Association Best Screenplay (win) -Dan Futterman -2005 -L.A. Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress (win) -Catherine Keener -2005 -L.A. Film Critics Association Best Actor (win) -Philip Seymour Hoffman -2005 -Natinal Society of Film Critics Best Director (Runner-up) (win) -Bennett Miller -2005 -Natinal Society of Film Critics Best Picture (win) - -2005 -Natinal Society of Film Critics Best Screenplay (Runner-up) (win) -Dan Futterman -2005 -Natinal Society of Film Critics Best Supporting Actress (Runner-up) (win) -Catherine Keener -2005 -Natinal Society of Film Critics Best Actor (win) -Philip Seymour Hoffman -2005 -National Board of Review Best Picture (nom) - -2005 -National Board of Review Best First Film (win) -Bennett Miller -2005 -New York Film Critics Circle Best Actor (win) -Philip Seymour Hoffman -2005 -Online Film Critics Association Best Adapted Screenplay (nom) -Dan Futterman -2005 -Online Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress (nom) -Catherine Keener -2005 -Online Film Critics Association Breakthrough Filmmaker (nom) -Bennett Miller -2005 -Online Film Critics Association Top Ten Film of the Year (win) - -2005 -Phoenix Film Critics Association Producer of the Year (nom) -William Vince -2005 -Producer's Guild Producer of the Year (nom) -Michael Ohoven -2005 -Producer's Guild Producer of the Year (nom) -Caroline Baron -2005 -Producer's Guild Best Actor (win) -Philip Seymour Hoffman -2005 -San Diego Film Critics Association Best Adapted Screenplay (win) -Dan Futterman -2005 -San Diego Film Critics Association Best Director (win) -Bennett Miller -2005 -San Diego Film Critics Association Best Actor (win) -Philip Seymour Hoffman -2005 -Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble (nom) - -2005 -Screen Actors Guild Best Supporting Actress (nom) -Catherine Keener -2005 -Screen Actors Guild Best Actor (nom) -Philip Seymour Hoffman -2005 -Toronto Film Critics Association Best First Feature (nom) -Bennett Miller -2005 -Toronto Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress (nom) -Catherine Keener -2005 -Toronto Film Critics Association Best Adapted Screenplay (nom) -Dan Futterman -2005 -Writers Guild of America |
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