Infamous (2006)

It is a performances centric movie

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Blistering performances.

This second version of the Capote story as the writer of In cold blood beats the first. Infamous depicts the story much better, and hilariously, rendering Truman more truly I believe. His relationship with the murderers is also much more credible here. If true, this would make the films In cold Blood and Capote rather inaccurate regarding the real nature of the killers, especially Capote's friend.

I finally caught up with Infamous and found it one of the most intriguing movies I have seen in years. Toby Jones gave a much more rounded and three-dimensional portrayal of Capote than Hoffman's in Capote. All the performances were excellent and I was totally absorbed from start to finish. Sandra Bullock, as Harper Lee, gives one of the more nuanced performances I have seen from her. In fact, all the characters were portrayed with subtlety, without any grandstanding. Jeff Daniels, as the main lawman in the case of the murders that Capote goes to Kansas to investigate, is a good example of this, as is Daniel Craig. Anyone who has not seen this movie should do so asap.

Toby Jones' uncanny portrayal of author Truman Capote is really the only reason to see "Infamous". Following on the heels of Bennett Miller's "Capote" from 2005, which covers the same ground as "Infamous"--and netted Philip Seymour Hoffman a Best Actor Oscar besides--the film feels like an also-ran. In the aftermath of the senseless killings of an innocent farm family in Kansas, curious Capote and companion Harper Lee descend upon the small town residents of Holcomb for details and facts about the victims for a proposed article Capote hopes to write (which eventually became the fictionalized non-fiction bestseller, "In Cold Blood"). Jones offers a far more flamboyant characterization of Truman Capote than Hoffman's somewhat damp and subdued portrayal (which made him a bit more approachable to the locals). This Capote is a petulant, persistent and flirtatious little man, an outrageous raconteur and celebrity name-dropper with no edit-button—and no desire to tone down his flaming personality to fit in with the people of Holcomb. It would be impossible not to compare the two performances, and each is excellent in its own way, but Hoffman is more effective during the crucial stretch in the story—when Capote interviews the two incarcerated men who committed the murders, and develops an affection for the brooding Perry Smith. Jones and a miscast Daniel Craig (as Smith) can't break through the plastic coating that permeates their scenes together in the prison, and the rest of "Infamous" feels nearly as artificial. Everyone here is working with great style and aplomb, but there isn't much emotion applied to the circumstance surrounding the events in the film. Capote tours the house where the murders took place, but nothing is built upon this…and nothing is accomplished in the friendship between Truman and Harper Lee (played by Sandra Bullock, as if she were stifling a headache). The production is handsome and some of the dialogue passages are very fine, but the picture isn't convincing on the most elemental of levels. Director Douglas McGrath would much rather dwell on a party sequence with Capote and friends learning the Twist rather than probe these tumultuous personalities with any depth. ** from ****

Gore Vidal described his voice as what a brussel sprout would sound like if it could talk. I prefer to think of him as a live action version of Droopy the dog. This fascinating and aggravating man was gayer than Liberace, hanging out with some rather odd high class women (don't you dare refer them as eccentric, even if they do have their maid iron their money!), and ending up in a relationship with a man who has sworn off women after his wife betrayed him. The world of Truman Capote is explored in this colorful drama, focusing on his research on a real murder that influenced "In Cold Blood". When Capote visits the actual scene of the crime, you see how true to life he structured the story.Toby Jones followed up the excellent performance of Philip Seymour Hoffman with an equally flamboyant one, yet one filled with many layers. Dressed in drag to fool people he wants to interview, he looks like Granny from the Sylvester/Tweety Bird cartoons, but in spite of how animated he is, you really believe that this is exactly Capote lived. Such actresses like Sandra Bullock, Sigourney Weaver and Juliette Stevenson, the cigarette smoking "eccentric" with the money ironing fetish. Bullock is outstanding as the legendary Harper Lee of "To Kill a Mockingbird" fame. Jones is hysterical in a scene where he impresses the locals by mentioning his acquaintances from Hollywood's golden age. True or not, the way he tells it is fascinating.Having only seen Capote, the real deal, in a few interviews, all I can do is make speculations about what he was like in real life. It gives more insight into what he was as like around normal people, and he is as fascinated by the hicks from Kansas as he is with big city celebrities. With these mid- westerners obviously aware of his sexual orientation yet not shunning him has to be credited to his charm. Capote does get acidic and bitchy at times, but it's more out of frustration than his own inner demons that cause nasty queens in the first place.His interactions are also quite incisive with the killers, with Daniel Craig and Lee Pace adding individual nuances to the personalities of the killers to where they seem almost human even after committing such heinous acts. Jeff Daniels is excellent as the local law enforcement who is alternately annoyed and amused by Jones. Some crude remarks flung at Capote in the prison cell- block might offend sensitive ears, but a story that Capote tells in regards to how he deals with such ill-mannered advances is hysterical. Period detail is excellent, the writing is something that Capote would applaud, and the history lesson is invaluable. The ending is heart-wrenching as a love of sorts develops between the quietly masculine Craig and the fruity Jones, and reveals something about Capote as he watches Craig face his tragic fate. I never thought I'd have sympathy for such brutal killers, but the writing is so powerful it did just exactly that.