Capote vs. Capote

I finally got around to watching Infamous, the second movie in two years that delves into Truman Capote's time in Kansas. In Capote we saw the earnest artist (beautifully portrayed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor); in Infamous we see the peevish, shallow, darker side of Capote. Actor Toby Jones is a close physical and vocal match for Capote, unlike the beefier Hoffman, but he lacks the latter's pathos. His mincing, deliberately provocative ways don't endear him to anyone except a handful of equally self-absorbed society matrons (Capote's "swans"). If Hoffman played a Capote we would love to hate, Jones plays a Capote we would hate to love.

The film starts with a whimper. Literally. Gwyneth Paltrow is a terrible lounge singer who lapses into a trance-like state right in the middle of "What Is This Thing Called Love", and begins muttering incoherently. I'm guessing that director Douglas McGrath is good friends with Ms. Paltrow, 'cause no other director in his right mind would waste a cameo on her. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Gwyneth Paltrow is almost as intriguing as a stalk of celery.

In Infamous Jeff Daniels has the role of Alvin Dewey, and he suffers by comparison with Chris Cooper (American Beauty, Breach) - the ultimate actor when it comes to conflicted tightasses. Dewey and Capote struck up a friendship that survived the publication of In Cold Blood, but you wouldn't know it from watching Infamous. Daniels' Dewey is the stereotypical Kansas lawman: Bland, easily piqued, and utterly intolerant of flamboyant little gay writers from Manhattan.

In Capote we saw Harper Lee (Catherine Keener) as the stoic companion and bodyguard, utterly confident in herself and her place in the world. In Infamous, we see a much needier woman who doesn't care about Mockingbird's reception, so long as her publisher lets her write a second novel. We witness hotel catfights between Truman and Nell, instead of seeing her as a stabilizing influence on Capote.

In Infamous's prison interviews, Truman starts off as a miniature tyrant and ends up as a foolish old man sick with puppy love for murderer Perry Smith. He comes across as a perverted little parasite. In Capote, we saw the subtle shades of light and dark that constituted Capote's very complex relationships to the killers, the inner battle between his need to nurture and his urge to exploit, and the permanent psychic damage that the experience caused him. When it came to Hickock and Smith, he basically had to choose between being a caring benefactor and being a writer. In the end, he chose the role that was most familiar to him.

While it could be true that the picture of Capote seen in Infamous is closer to his actual persona than that in Capote, Capote himself understood that the truth needs a little something extra to make it unforgettable.

So, take your pick: The bitchy but flirtatious Capote (Infamous), or the somewhat shallow but deeply empathic Capote (Capote). I've made my choice, and unlike most of Truman Capote's sentences, it doesn't begin with an "I".