Infamous (2006)

That other mid 2000's Truman Capote movie. Infamous is based George Plimpton's 1997 book Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career. Like the better know Capote, Infamous focuses on Truman's life during the late 1950's and 1960's when he was working on what would becomes his most famous and successful book In Cold Blood. What I found most remarkable after watching this film is that we now have (at least) three movies focusing on the now 'infamous' 1959 Clutter family murders, and each of them is an excellent film. In Cold Blood (1967), Capote (2005), and Infamous (2006) are all great movies, and each of them feel fresh and distinct from each other. Of the two that really incorporate the author in the story Capote will always be the better known, given Philip Seymour Hoffman's Oscar winning performance in the title role. Yet Toby Jones, who plays Capote in Infamous, is the more obvious casting, he naturally looks more like Capote, and his performance is strong, maybe just slightly weaker then Hoffman's.

Film critic Jack Matthews said of this film that its "certainly as good (as Capote) and a lot more fun." I think he's right, it's been nearly 10 years since I saw Hoffman's film but I still recall its consistently grim tone. Infamous is serious for good stretches, but on the whole more playful. I think you get a good sense of Capote the public personality and how his time investing the Clutter murders and getting to know the perpetrators, particularly Perry Smith, here played by Daniel Craig, affected him. The film has a very impressive cast including Sandra Bullock as Harper Lee, and Jeff Daniels as the sheriff of Holcomb, Kansas, with Peter Bogdanovich, Hope Davis, Isabella Rossellini, and Sigourney Weaver playing Capote's New York society friends. The now much more well know Lee Pace plays the other killer. Particularly near the beginning of the film various character's give talking head 'The Office' like commentary on what's going on, which given the nature of the books source material works better then you might suspect it would. Again even if you've seen the other films about this story, Infamous is probably worth your time. ****