Capote - Who's seen it?
 

Is Philip Seymour Hoffman as brilliant as I expect him to be?

I'm thinking I might need to re-read the book before the movie finally makes it to my little 'burg.

The buzz I've read seems good. He really is going to be great as Tru. I can completely picture it.

I'm going to see this over the coming weekend. Really looking forward to it.

Donna

With luck and the consent of my buddy who is going to the movies today, our film-o-the-day will be Capote. It's raining, and cold and I am looking forward to a good movie. Report on whatever I see later on tonight!

Donna

Capote - a tour de force
 

Well, I don't know where to start with this film.

It's tremendous, it's grim, it's fascinating, it's really well made. The period is captured perfectly, the scripting is taut, judicious, understated. The scoring, like the script, is understated. The acting, tremendous, so much so, I felt more like I was watching things as they happened, everyone was subtle.

Philip Seymour Hoffman is not playing Capote, it's like he is channeling Truman Capote. Not once does he overplay or does he descend into caricature. It's a masterful performance, every gesture, every word seems 100% true to Truman. Good, bad or horrible.

Clifton Collins is positively scary as the condemned murderer, Perry Smith. Understated (and I fear I am overusing this word) outwardly and underneath, behind his eyes, you see the man who did the murders. Very effective.

Chris Cooper has a nice turn as the family friend of Herb Clutter, who is also the chief investigator of the crime. He always adds a plus to any film I've seen him in. In this film he is no different.

The film sucked me in from the first frames of wheat blowing in the wind and held me in rapt attention through the final fadeout.

This is not a light evenings entertainment, it's a thoughtful, gripping tale, a film much like Capote's book In Cold Blood was and is, a true crime novel, except this is the making of the true crime novel in the form of a film. As Woodrow Wilson is purported to have said after seeing D.W. Griffith's 1915 epic The Birth of a Nation, it's like watching history written with lightening. So is this, a quiet storm of images, music and words, all blended seamlessly into a terrific film.

I liked it!

Donna

I loved it! Hoffman was fantastic. Now I need to read In Cold Blood.

I was especially intrigued by the almost complete absence of an underscore in the film. There are a lot of quiet moments in the movie that create great space for the viewer to see what's on screen and think about it without getting hit over the head with an orchestra.

I loved it as well.