Infamous
It was just a matter of bad
timing that Infamous and Capote come a mere year apart from
each other. Both films examine the same portion of an eccentric,
enigmatic artist's life, but looking at it from different angles. Just
because Infamous is coming out a year after all of the Oscar buzz for
Phillip Seymour Hoffman's performance as Truman Capote doesn't mean it's
riding coattails. In fact, Infamous and Capote were
being put together at the same time and the other film just beat it out of
the gate.
Although many of the
occurrences and characters are the the same, the style in which the movies
are told is rather different. Capote was a more intellectual,
ironic, cold take on the story. Infamous luxuriates in the
emotional, open, warm and tragic touches of the story. It's like a
different recording of a favorite song sometimes new colors and nuances
are exposed with a different viewpoint. Also, this is certainly a
fascinating story, perhaps one of the more interesting in Twentieth century
literature, which can certainly stand more than one telling. (In fact,
about a decade ago, one night at a bar, a friend and I also toyed with the
idea of turning Truman Capote's Kansas experience into a screenplay.)
This is, of course, the
turning point in the life of Capote. He was a popular writer and
bon vivant who became the favorite party accessory for some of the most
prominent women in high society, a flamboyant, showy, funny, gossipy
charmer. In the 50s, even in New York, Capote cut a different swathe,
but he was able to put people at ease and become the life of the party at
will. Capote didn't downplay his eccentricities, if anything he pushed
them harder on people who barely knew him.
What seems like a minor
decision ends up irrevocably changing his life. He read the story of a
Kansas farm family which was brutally murdered and he decided to go to the
heartland to write about it. It seemed an odd choice for a man best
known for chronicling upper class foibles. However as he gets involved
he is dragged further and further into the world of life and death.
When the killers are
caught, he starts a series of interviews with them. He soon finds
himself forced to open himself up to reach one of the killers, a quiet,
brooding, intense man named Perry Smith (Daniel Craig) who shares an
artistic temperament with the tiny writer. He sees Smith as a fellow
outsider and finds himself being more and more drawn to the brutish killer;
putting him in the horrible position of knowing that the man will have to
die for his book to work, but if it does happen he will lose the man he
loves.
Toby Jones, a British actor
who is probably best known in the US for voicing Dobby the Elf in the
Harry Potter movies, is quite good as Capote. Maybe not
quite as powerful as Hoffman, but he still nails the role, and unlike
Hoffman, Jones also looks eerily like the late author.
He is surrounded by an
amazing supporting cast, in large roles (Sandra Bullock shines as Capote's
oldest friend, novelist Harper Lee, soon-to-be Bond Daniel Craig as killer
Perry Smith), small (Jeff Daniels as the Kansas sheriff, Sigourney Weaver,
Juliet Stevenson, Hope Davis and Isabella Rossellini as society women) and
glorified cameos (Gwyneth Paltrow's jazz singer does one standout
performance and never reappears).
Infamous
is certainly different from Capote, but just as
good in it's own way.
Turns out that the world really is a big enough place for dueling
Capote movies. (10/06)
Jay
S. Jacobs
