Capote

Capote (2005) was very well made. We get to follow Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) throughout his writing of his book "In Cold Blood." It is an interesting look into the mind of a very profound writer. It also leaves you with the distinct feeling that he was a complete and utter asshole. The most interesting scenes are the ones that Capote shares with one of the killers, who has mesmerized Capote with his gentleness.

The film doesn't paint a completely perfect image of the killer as innocent, which was not probably the goal of the writer and director but it makes the reveal of the events of the murder narrated by the killer a bit less shocking. A reveal like that would have been one hell of a show. I can still remember when Edward Norton uttered the lines "there never was an Aaron, counselor" at the end of Primal Fear (1996).

In the end, I wasn't entirely sure I knew who Capote was. There isn't a satisfying arc in the film. He's kind of an asshole, but he kind of cares. Maybe that is what the real Capote was like, but it was underwhelming. A final text scrawl tells us he died of alcoholism complicatiosn some twenty years after the book was published. I probably would have been more interested in how the events of this movie affected his later life.