So I showed Capote at the Evans tonight. I knew essentially nothing about the man before I watched the movie. Normally I have a hard time watching a show where the main character is unsympathetic, but somehow this show was quite compelling. Philip Seymour Hoffman did a fantastic job in his role as Truman Capote.
The film’s Capote was a self-serving, loathesome, manipulative little bastard; I can’t speak to the real, flesh-and-blood version, because like I said, I knew basically squat about him going into the film. I sure hope that being a little turd isn’t a requirement to be an author. I don’t think I could live with myself.
Also fascinating is the fact that part of it was shot on location here in Manitoba. I was surprised to discover that little factoid, but in hindsight, I shouldn’t have been. After all, what’s flatter than Kansas (where about two-thirds of the movie took place)? That’s right: Manitoba.
On the whole, it didn’t suck. But I don’t know if I could watch it again. It’s not the grating voice; I got used to that fairly early on. It’s the way Capote uses everyone and everything around him, and then denies doing it, even to himself. There’s a scene, late in the film, where he breaks down and cries, but after everything that led up to that point, I had to wonder if they were real tears or if he was trying to get something from someone with them.