Philip Seymour Hoffman

Catherine Keener

Clifton Collins Jr.

Bruce Greenwood

Bob Balaban

Mark Pellegrino

Marshall Bell

Amy Ryan

Bess Meyer

Chris Cooper

Allie Mickelson

Craig Archibald

Bronwen Coleman

Kate Shindle

David Wilson Barnes

Michael J. Burg

Kwesi Ameyaw

Andrew Farago

Kelci Stephenson

C. Ernst Harth

Kjartan Hewitt

Nazariy Demkowicz

Bennett Miller

Dan Futterman

Avy Kaufman

William Vince

Christopher Tellefsen

Heike Brandstatter

Coreen Mayrs

Michael Ohoven

Mychael Danna

Adam Kimmel

Gerald Clarke

Caroline Baron

Maryam Decter

Gord Peterson

Alanna Mills

Jess Gonchor

Kasia Walicka Maimone

Pamela M. Athayde

Holly Moore

Aldo Signoretti

Scott Rossell

Susan Jacobs

Crime

Drama

Capote

United Artists

A-Line Pictures

Cooper's Town

Infinity Media

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

United States of America

CinemaSerf

Actor or mimic or both? Philip Seymour Hoffman certainly delivers a plausible and captivating portrayal of the eponymous acclaimed novelist in the late 1950s. He is researching his latest novel when he alights on news of the brutal murder of a Kansas family. Pretty unscrupulously, this rather unfulfilled writer decides this is a rich vein for him to exploit, and so using just about every (legal) means at his disposal manages to ingratiate himself with friends of the victims and then once the police apprehend two suspects, he does the same with Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jnr.). He intends to use the template of this case and the true nature of the personalities to construct a novel - but one based in fact not fiction. What ensues here is quite a cleverly crafted look at just how the shrewd and intelligent man uses his intellect to manipulate the scenario so as to provide him what what he wants, when he wants it - but it also exposes his slightly controlling character to some fault lines. He begins to form a relationship, of sorts, with his quarry - he has a fondness that compromises his objectivity to his story; the accused serves to begin to humanise this rather aloof and frankly quite arrogant figure. There is a distinct power shift here. It's a tightly cast effort this, with most of the emphasis on the efforts of Hoffman, a strong performance from Collins and a useful supporting contribution from Catherine Keener as the foil/conduit for much of her friend Capote's thoughts and behaviour. The style of the production, the attention to detail and the Mychael Danna score all add to the richness of this, admittedly quite speculative, drama that shines a bit of a light not just into what made this man tick, but also just what made the USA tick too.