CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 9/30/05

Read the Book Instead

By den Shewman

Capote

Dan Futterman
Based on the book by Gerald Clarke

Actors at their best can take nothing and mesmerize us with their interpretation of it. While there's slightly more than nothing here, Phillip Seymour Hoffman's great mimicry of titular alcoholic novelist and bon vivant Truman Capote, not the script, is by far the best thing in this tale of a man who could be called the 20th century's answer to Oscar Wilde. Capote follows Truman on his path through Kansas, prison (but just as a visitor), and society while writing of the two young murderers who slaughtered a family. Hence we see the creation of the novelist's groundbreaking "Non-Fiction Novel" (as he put it) In Cold Blood, the film version of which replaced trés gay Truman with a more straight-laced journo. While elements such as Capote's longstanding friendship with To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee (Catherine Keener) hold interest, the central question and cause of the novelist's soul-searching is a muddled mess, and the pacing drags things out even further. Capote vacillates on the nature of his relationship with murderer Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.) -- is it friendship, or just exploiting a source to get a great story? -- and, although evidence suggests he was playing everyone but himself, our protagonist's arc is neither compelling or even all that interesting. Ironically for an actor turned screenwriter, Dan Futterman wrote a screenplay that depends on great actors (Chris Cooper, Bruce Greenwood, Bob Balaban, and Clifton Collins Jr. all do their best) more than a great script.

For a great documentary, check out The Cruise, Capote director Bennett Miller's 1998 portrait of New York City tour guide, savant, and whacked-out philosopher Timothy "Speed" Levitch.

Capote
Sony Classics
Rated R; 109 min.

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Den Shewman wrote a script review for Creative Screenwriting five years ago, and somehow ended up as editor-in-chief of Creative Screenwriting magazine and CS Weekly. Yet he co-wrote an episode of The New Adventures of Robin Hood (which, according to the producers, was the #2 show in France at the time) and never ended up as executive producer of Maid Marian: Bring It On. More proof that life is not fair.

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