USA: New film "Capote" is getting rave reviews for its revealing insights into the life of famous American writer Truman Caopte

While it's still very early in the movie awards season, and there are lots of other potential contenders yet to open, reviewers insist it's hard to imagine "Capote" not making a big impact. The R-rated biographical drama boasts a tour de force performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote at the time he was researching and writing "In Cold Blood," the non-fiction novel about two Kansas killers. Capote, the toast of New York literary society, became the most famous author in America with "In Cold Blood." It was inspired by his 1959 discovery of a New York Times story about the murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas. At first, Hoffman was not convinced about taking on the role of the New York writer. "I didn't really know what was fascinating about his (Capote's) life that I would you know be interested in, and so when I read the script, I started to see what it was, you know, and then I read the biography and became somewhat obsessed with the whole idea of this story, and that's really you know how I keyed in," he said. For the role, Hoffman adopted an effeminate voice and manners, as well as explore the moral grays in the writer's life. "What's difficult about playing this character is doing all of that, you know, and doing the voice, and all the behaviour and everything along with it. I mean to have those things co-exist together is I think the challenge with this part, and that was the challenge for me," Hoffman said. Catherine Keener plays Capote's researcher Harper Lee, a Pulitzer Prize winner subsequently for her own novel "To Kill A Mockingbird"; Clifton Collins Jr. is one of the killers; and Chris Cooper plays the Kansas detective leading the investigation into those murders. "Luckily, Phil and I - we hadn't known each other prior to that except I was a big fan of his obviously, and he hired me as part of - he had to say ok, so that was good. But we got along so well, that it was easy to convey that, because that's how I feel about Phil, you know, so just happened to work for the character's relationships," Keener said. In the film, Capote, the transparently gay writer with a high-pitched voice and exaggerated fey manners showed up on the Kansas scene, earning the confidence of Alvin Dewey (Cooper), a starchy Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent, and the killers, Perry Smith (Collins) and Dick Hickock (Mark Pellegrino). Truman's outsider status, so peculiar to all these folks, sometimes works in his favour. "Capote" is its director Bennett Miller's first big film. A well-known director of TV commercials, Miller had previously directed the critically acclaimed documentary "The Cruise," which won two awards in 1999 at the Berlin Film Festival. "It's a very complex performance that Phil Hoffman does and what the film does I think is really sensitize you to all the frequencies he's communicating on," Miller said. After being very well received earlier this month at film festivals in Telluride and Toronto, the Sony Pictures Classics screened at the New York Film Festival before starting its commercial release in New York and Los Angeles on September 30, the 81st anniversary of Capote's birth. The film will expand nationwide on October 28.

ITN Source | October 6, 2005

Tags:. .discovery. .cruise. .prize. .berlin. .cooper