INFAMOUS
Director: Douglas McGrath Cast: Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock, Daniel Craig, Lee Pace, Peter Bogdanovich, Jeff Daniels, Lee Pace, Hope Davis, Isabella Rossellini, Sigourney Weaver MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:50 Release Date: 10/13/06 |
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Capsule review by Mark Dujsik Infamous, relegated to the status of that other movie about Truman Capote, certainly suffers from the recent and lingering memory of the superior Capote. It's a brighter and far more obvious account of Capote's writing of In Cold Blood. Playing like a scandal-rag version of events, writer/director Douglas McGrath (working off George Plimpton's biography of the author) concentrates on the clashing of Capote's gossipy, New York City atmosphere with the down home curiosity of rural Kansas as the author tries to earn the trust of folks who can tell him about the murder of the Clutter family. McGrath intercuts much of the action with staged interviews of Capote's social and literary contemporaries, including his early friend Harper Lee, played with an awkward drawl and not else by Sandra Bullock. Toby Jones plays Capote, and his performance, like the film, is overshadowed by the previous work. It's primarily caricature with hints of depth as the story progresses. Blowing up the relationship between Capote and convicted murderer Perry Smith (Daniel Craig) into a star-crossed romance is certainly obvious and so is the summing up of Capote's downfall in those interviews. It's an interesting companion piece but not much else. Copyright © 2007 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for language, violence and some sexuality)
