Is it possible that another film about Truman Capote, that appeared after
the Oscar winning Capote is worth seeing? The answer is a resounding
Yes!
If you enjoyed the 2006 Oscar winning film Capote, you might want to consider complementing your experience by viewing Toby Jones’ portrayal of Capote in Infamous. Because the films were released just months apart, and Capote was
the first on the scene, it grabbed the lion’s share of box office receipts and garnered rave reviews due to Philip Seymour Hoffman’s clone-like performance Infamous was unjustly overlooked.
In Infamous Toby Jones camps Capote’s outrageous mannerisms, and outspoken commentaries which made him the darling of sophisticated social circles, and everyone’s pet. Cut to scenes of Truman, surrounded by captivated socialites and movie stars, as he quips one liners. Infamous provides us with a view of the humorous side of Capote, a man who was never afraid to
be a larger than life caricature of himself, and lends a comedic air to an otherwise serious film.
In deciding to write his true crime blockbuster In Cold Blood, Capote was
drawn inextricably into the lives of the assailants. The soulful relationship between writer and murderer, the shared childhood abandonment, the need for each to make a lasting impression, one as famous and the other as infamous,
is exquisitely probed and explored in Infamous.
Capote’s subsequent lapse into alcoholism and depression, exacerbated by the fact that he never wrote another critically acclaimed book, is now understood in light of the devastation he suffered in losing his soulmate to the hangman’s noose. Because of Toby Jones’ sensitive portrayal in Infamous, it becomes apparent that, because he exploited Perry’s confidences to underscore the realism of In Cold Blood, and profited from his lover’s demise, Capote was haunted for the rest of his life.
Infamous leads us to a greater understanding of the unique genius that was Truman Capote.
Infamous. [DVD videorecording]. Widescreen version. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, [2007].
