Short and sweet: Capote is a stark and perfectly visualized work that highlights film's most underrated actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman, in all of his character-actor glory.

I love this film for two reasons mainly: Hoffman's literally perfect performance in his portrayal of a complex journalist, Truman Capote, and the (also) perfect cinematography and editing. This is a bleak and mature picture that takes its audience as smart individuals who can make decisions on their opinion on characters by themselves. Each actor gives a very human performance, which is refreshing.

The only thing that stops this from being a 10/10 is it does tend to drag a bit in certain spots, and I believe a good 15 minutes could have been trimmed from the run time. But, in the same breathe, I can see others defending that the extra time (used primarily to show Capote's personal life) lends to character depth.

All in all, great film that primarily services the film snob, which is OK with me.

It's easy to become conflicted over the character of Truman Capote in this picture, just as Capote himself appeared to be conflicted in his relationship with one of the Clutter Family murderers, Perry Smith. It was a little unsettling to hear Capote outright lie to Smith the first time (when he said he didn't have a title to his book yet), but then he repeatedly lied time and time again to secure an advantage in gaining insights into Smith's character. Maybe 'lie' isn't the right word, how about manipulate? Capote was a master manipulator when it came to getting the information he wanted and needed for his story. I'm not so sure I wouldn't have done the same.

The title for the film might be a bit of a misnomer. "Capote" isn't about the life of the esteemed novelist, it's really about a five or so year window during which Capote became captivated by the murder of a Kansas family and decided to write about it. I'm not sure if this was the first 'non-fiction novel' ever written as Capote claims to his publisher in the story, but that probably doesn't matter. If you've read "In Cold Blood", you'll know it's a chilling account of the brutal Clutter murders, a riveting read that's hard to put down once you get started.

Despite the real life Capote's celebrity, the only time I've ever seen him, and this seems kind of weird, was as a panelist on a handful of the old Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts aired during the Seventies. Every time he appeared, as I recall, he utilized that affectation where he brings two fingers to his eye underneath the eyeglass lens. I can't recall if Phillip Seymour Hoffman did it more than once in this movie, but the one time I did make note of it was while riding to the premiere of "To Kill a Mockingbird" with his publisher William Shawn (Bob Balaban).

What one probably needs to do if you haven't already done so, is catch up with the 1967 film based on Capote's book. As a complement to this picture, it does a much better job of detailing the dysfunctional, sordid and senseless lives of Richard Hickok and Perry Smith, while the stark black and white filming adds to the horror of the Clutter nightmare. In that movie, Perry Smith is portrayed by actor Robert Blake, and thinking about it now, wouldn't it have been something if Blake and Hoffman were contemporaries to appear in a film like this together. That would have been something, wouldn't it?

Reading some of the negative reviews on this board, it appears that the film's pace was a problem for most. Granted, this is not an action movie, but the drama presented is noteworthy and provides some insight into the complexity of Truman Capote's character. What might serve well would be a more complete story on his life and times, the description of his early life to prisoner Smith sounded like the kind of stuff that would make for a compelling biography.

The story is basically the same as "In Cold Blood" but it's from a different POV. In Cold Blood was an autobiographical story of Truman Capote's experience writing about these horrible murders. "Capote" is a look at the same events but it's a more objective view of Truman C. The motivations of Truman Capote are more clear in this version and the film reaches a greater sense of truth regarding the characters involved in these awful crimes. I enjoyed the movie a lot and highly recommend it. Philip Seymour Hoffman was stupendous ac TC and he deserved the Oscar for sure!