Infamous

We watched a film called "Infamous" on the weekend. "Infamous" had the misfortune of being released within a year of "Capote" – misfortune because it dealt with the same subject matter, the late Truman Capote's struggle to write his masterwork "In Cold Blood", and the entropy that became his life following it's release. However the timing also affords the viewer a greater albeit unintentional luxury – the opportunity to see an identical non-fiction story told from 2 different perspectives by 2 contemporaries, directors Bennett Miller (Capote) and Douglas McGrath (Infamous). IMHO "Capote" is hands-down the superior film. Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of Truman Capote is subtle and studied, with just enough of the author's trademark flamboyance to make it credible. However in "Infamous" Toby Jone's Truman Capote is a caricature, an over-the-top parade of conceit that comes off being too cartoonish to elicit any empathy. In fact several of the wide-eyed pug-faced close-ups combined with THAT VOICE were more Looney Tunes than looney killers. Although I can't fault him for the voice, which was Capote's own. Hoffman's Capote was idiosyncratic, Jone's Capote was idiotic.

As for the other characters, in "Infamous" Daniel Craig (yup, James Bond himself) is miscast as Perry Smith, the cold-blooded killer made "victim" in the author's eyes. Craig's Perry Smith is flat, played too close to the surface – he seems no more the killer than Capote himself. In "Capote" Clifton Collins Jr's Perry Smith is dark and brooding, a smoldering mass of externalized self-loathing. In "Capote" Smith's partner in crime Richard "Dick" Hicock (played by Mark Pellegrino) is a menacing combination of bravado and detachment, believably sociopathic. In "Infamous" Hicock (played by Lee Pace) comes off like Eddie Haskell gone wrong. BTW here's a little movie trivia: in 1967's film adaptation of Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" Dick Hicock is played by Scott Wilson aka Sam Braun from CSI.

"Infamous" is not without one redeeming factor however – Sandra Bullock as Harper Lee, Truman Capote's moral keel. Sandra Bullock is actually REALLY good. Never thought I'd say that.

"Capote" had a sense of coldness about it, from the exterior shots of snow-covered wheat fields and the penitentiary (shot in Manitoba) to Smith and Hicock's darkly humoured exchanges just prior to their hangings. "Infamous" was a comic romp through serial-killer world, complete with an inappropriate soundtrack, cutesy nicknames (Capote refers to Chief Inspector Alvin Dewey as "Foxy"), and the intensity of a Disney short.

When Philip Seymour Hoffman won the Best Actor Oscar for "Capote" sour grapes were spat by some who accused the actor of mere mimicry. Watch these 2 films back-to-back and judge for yourself.