Infamous

This movie definitely ran into some bad luck. A year after Capote, no one had any interest in seeing this. That is too bad because it is a pretty good movie. I wish that I could remember Capote better so I could make a better comparison, but oh well. I remember enough about it to know that both films have almost exactly the same story structure, right down to both getting kind of boring at the same point - at the beginning of the second hour before rebounding at the end.

As good as Philip Seymour Hoffman was, he had one handicap - he was too damn big to play Capote. Toby Jones is so damn small, there is no danger that he will tower over anyone in the way that Hoffman's Capote often did. There are a lot more jokes in this film about Capote being mistaken for a woman than I recall from Capote.

This film has a much different tone than Capote by the end. That film had Capote clearly using Perry and not being all that upset when he was executed because he knew that it would make a better ending for his book. This film shows Capote clearly upset by Perry's execution and hints that the two were having an affair.

It is so hard to give this movie its proper respect because I felt like I'd just seen it. But in a lot of ways, this film is superior to Capote. I like the way that the film shows how Capote tested his material out on his friends before deciding which "truth" to write about. I don't think that Capote showed this crucial element to Capote's writing style as effectively or maybe I just don't remember it as well.

And if nothing else, you might want to see this movie to see James Bond kiss a man who looks like one of the munchkins from The Wizard of Oz.

Directed by Douglas McGrath
2006
DVD