Plot: At a farm in Kansas, a family friend discovers the Clutter family to have been murdered in their homes. This interests writer, Truman Capote to write a document about what happened, ao he travels to Kansas, taking his childhood friend Nelle Harper Lee with him and interviewing the people who were involved with the victims. But eventually, the murder suspects, Perry Smith and Richard "Dick" Hickock, are caught, and once Capote begins to interview Smith in particular, be begins to grow an attachment to him and starts to turn his document into a book and tries to use it to try to defend the suspects.
If I can sum up how this movie turned out in one word, I would more or less go with saying that it was riveting. Because while the matter of what Capote is apparently trying to do from the beginning is interesting enough, it's Hoffman's central performance that, over time, makes the journey in the film very compelling. The real heart and focus of the film is of coarse on Capote and how this entire thing is a very significant period in the writer's life. Which is not to say that there is no significance to everything else in the film, because there is. Clifton Collins Jr. also gives us a great performance as Phillip Smith. And just having someone like Catherine Keener give us Nelle Harper Lee, the writer of To Kill A Mockingbird mine you, on top of bringing up both her book and the film was a nice little addition of the movie. But at the end of the day, what leaves the biggest impact is Hoffman's performance. Because what debatably makes this film the most compelling is how Hoffman gives us all these different layers to Capote. We see him be the center of attention at a fancy party, we see him hanging out with his partner or Nelle Harper Lee, we see him try to write, we see him try to be a friend for Smith, we see all these different elements of him, and it's basically left unclear as to whether or not any of it is real. Hoffman created this character to become so complex, that it's really left to interpretation as to whether Capote is wearing a make while he's in public while showing his real self when talking to Smith, or vice versa. Heck, one can make the argument that not even Capote himself knows. And I think that especially is what made this performance debatably Hoffman's best to the point where he definitely deserved to win Best Actor, as well as being what really made this film really special.
And that's my review for Capote. It has an interesting story and some other great performances besides Hoffman, but it was Hoffman himself that made the film work by giving us a character that has so many different elements to him that makes the entire story compelling and so gives us the real heart of the film. If you have not seen this movie and maybe don't even know that much about Philip Seymour Hoffman, I think this is a great movie for you to take a look at.
Rating: 100%
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