On the evening of Nov. 14, 1959, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock murdered four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kan. What followed was a massive investigation, a long and drawn-out trial, two executions and six years of research by a successful fiction author who wanted to create a new style of writing. From these events, "In Cold Blood" -- Capote's incarnation of the nonfiction crime thriller -- was born. Bennett Miller's first feature film, "Capote," follows the production of the book, and the character-driven classic Faustian case of destructive genius behind it.
"Capote" opens with the discovery of the Clutter murders and quickly cuts to New York, where Capote is the center of his own party, fresh from the success of his latest novel, "Breakfast at Tiffany's." He quickly finds a new passion in the Clutter story, however, and is off to Holcomb with childhood friend Nelle Harper Lee (an amazing Catherine Keener) who is about to publish "To Kill A Mockingbird." In an offhand comment, one of many that show his insensitivity, Capote tells head investigator Alvin Dewey (Chris Cooper) that he does not care whether the killers are caught or not; right now, his focus is on the effect of the murders on the townspeople. His attitude will change soon, and as news of the murderous duo's capture is relayed, the screen goes black, heralding a second act of sorts.
The relationship that will dominate the rest of the film begins the moment Capote sees Smith at the trial, sketching and using a precocious vocabulary as his rights are waived.Using his own power as a celebrity to get into the sheriff's residence, where Smith is being held, Capote reports back to his editor at The New Yorker that he senses in Smith a desperately lonely and frightened figure. Capote also sees himself in Smith: Both were abandoned as children, both had suicidal mothers, etc. Capote remarks, "It's as if Perry and I grew up in the same house. And one day he went out the back door and I went out the front."
Capote sees more in Smith than a kindred spirit; he sees a goldmine. How true their friendship runs is constantly called into question by the movie. For example, Capote uses the murder as fodder for gossip at another New York party, boasting of the "new path" his novel will blaze. The relationship between Smith and Capote begins as one of convenience -- providing an unbeatable story-line for Capote's book -- and then becomes increasingly tortuous, as the appeal process drags on and refuses to give the author an ending. The extent of this manipulation is clearest when Capote refuses to tell Smith the pending title, because "In Cold Blood" is not the work of a friend.
The character of Capote takes over the film so completely that the slightest miscasting would have been disastrous. Thankfully, Hoffman delivers the performance of a lifetime, turning Capote's high-pitched whisper of a voice and his fey mannerisms into a human being. In a lesser actor's hands, Capote's overt homosexuality and flair for theatrics could have been turned into repellent campiness. Hoffman, however, so absorbs the character that these traits are integrated realistically into the performance, and he somehow gives this flamboyant sophisticate subtlety and depth.
A criticism of the film is that in the final scenes it implies too strongly that Capote's exploitation of Smith was the downfall of his literary career and that his alcoholism-fueled death was a manifestation of this inner rot. While the effect of the Holcomb murders and, even more so, their murderers certainly weighed heavily on Capote, to blame events from the rest of his life on it is naive and sentimental in a movie that was largely (and fortunately) the opposite.
In the end, the entire cast and crew have created one of the most intelligent and engaging movies to be released in recent months. Hoffman certainly deserves the Oscar for his performance, but the film has a lot to offer beyond one actor's presence; Hoffman has a lot of support both on and off the camera, which makes for one of the best films of the year.
