Reel To Reel: Capote

How It Rates: ****
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman
Rated: R
Red Flags: Brief Graphic Violence, Smattering Of Language

In Cold Blood is on my list of Books I Need To Read Before I Die. But in a way, I already have. Truman Capote's nonfiction novel sparked a new genre and forever changed the way true-crime accounts were written. One of my favorites in the genre, Harry N. MacLean's In Broad Daylight, is one of Blood's many great grandchildren.

But Capote is not the story of a book. It is the story of a man consumed with humanizing the story of a family murdered in 1950's Kansas. Capote's probing of the two killers' lives brings out parallels in his own scattershot life and reveals currents of deep tragedy and longing. Watching Capote unravel the truth is like watching a sand castle blown away by the wind, leaving a foundation in ruins.

Hoffman, who just won an Oscar for his performance, is absolutely mesmerizing as the famed author. His high-pitched effeminate voice leaves no question about his orientation. But at the same time it projects childlike innocence, a harmless disposition that hides deeper scars. Several scenes show us how Capote could be the life of the party as a quirky storyteller. Hoffman embodies the role completely, flawlessly integrating Capote's tics and speech patterns.

The movie focuses on Capote's various journeys to Kansas to gather the raw material that would make him famous. He is aided by fellow author Harper Lee (Catherine Keener), who grew up in Capote's neighborhood and has just penned her own groundbreaking novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. Capote is not one to use a notebook and pen when he's talking to people. He will step into a room and start to absorb his surroundings, as he does in one memorable scene where he meets one of the killers being held in "the women's cell" -- a cage in the Sheriff's kitchen. Capote can recall conversations with amazing accuracy, as he himself boasts, which he will later jot down in notebooks.

The author realizes he can't tell the story without fleshing out the two killers, condemned to death. He bribes a warden to give him unlimited access. He finds another lawyer for them so they will not be executed before he's finished gathering facts. And in the process, a friendship develops -- but maybe it's more of a dependency. The killers want to live. Capote wants to finish his book. The author resorts to small deceptions to keep them talking, saying the book is less finished than it is. But Capote's legal aid works too well, putting the case in front of the Supreme Court, and further denying the author an end to the story which is tearing him up. All through this, he sees his friend Lee rise to fame. Her book is a success. It becomes a movie. Capote knows he has his own success, but it is delayed as long as the killers are alive. Still, he feels for them, he is bonded to them.

Capote reveals why the author never finished another book, just as In Cold Blood revealed what led two men to kill. Both Capote and the killers become victims of their own actions. And as the two criminals lost their lives, Capote loses his own in the contradictions of friendship and his work. He says to Lee, "I couldn't have done anything to save them." Lee replies, "Maybe not, Truman, but the truth is, you didn't want to."

Journalists are not supposed to become emotionally attached to the stories they cover, but Truman Capote was not a journalist. He was a novelist. The attention to detail, the need to create compelling characters, the crafting of a plot all drove him to dig into territory and emotional minefields many reporters don't wander into. Capote became the victim of a job too well done.