A superb central performance by Toby Jones among a cast of luminaries provides a strong foundation for the based-on-truth story of writer Truman Capote researching and writing his classic In Cold Blood.
The murder of a family of four at an isolated Kansas farm sends shock waves through the country. Persuading fellow-scribe Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock) to accompany him, the effeminate, high camp New York socialite descends on 1950s rural America determined to write the story – and rewrite the rule book of how a true crime story is written. The arrest of the two suspects and Capote’s access to Perry Smith (Daniel Craig) in particular provides him with the perfect material: the psychological insight. Only Capote gets emotionally too close.
Infamous was sadly eclipsed by Capote with Phillip Seymour Hoffman in the Oscar-winning role and which came out a few months earlier. The latter was more academic, Infamous certainly ‘gayer’, both in terms of Jones’ performance and the central premise of the relationship between the.writer and the prisoner. Capote took years to have the book published – and he never wrote anything of significance again. Director Douglas McGrath implies that the execution of Smith was a major contributory factor.
Rating: 68%
Director: Douglas McGrath (Emma, Nicholas Nickleby)
Writer: Douglas McGrath (Emma, Bullets Over Broadway) – based on the book by George Plimpton
Main cast: Toby Jones (Captain America: The First Avenger, Happy End), Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side, Gravity), Daniel Craig (Skyfall, Knives Out)
An Opinion or Two 