By Timothy Chow

 I caught up with a friend at another theatre to go see Capote. I knew very little about it, except for the fact that it was about the writing of In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. I had heard about the book before, mostly because it was revolutionary at the time, and knew that it dealt with the real-life murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas in the winter of 1959. Really though, that's all you need to know about it.

Like Girl With A Pearl Earring and the meticulous story behind that film, Capote is awesome, at its best really in the quiet and somber mood set by the wide-shots of rural Kansas and the rustling of the wheat fields along with the sparse piano-dominated soundtrack. Philip Seymour Hoffman is amazing as the title character; he gets down to the mannerisms and the oddities so well that it's hard to believe that he's not like that in real life. From the high-pitched squeal-y voice to the huge geeky glasses that he constantly readjusts, it's a part that is made by him, and only him. He just comes off as so natural at it, so comfortable.

The story itself is extremely engaging despite its languorous pace, from the interviews with the murderers to how Capote concocts the story behind their backs when he's not in the jail cell. The flashback to perpetrators actually doing it gave me shivers down my entire back and it was hard to sit there watching each member of that family being murdered like that, one by one. Especially chilling were the comments made about the victims by one of the murderers, Perry Smith: "I thought Mr. Clutter was a very nice man. He was a real gentleman. I thought so up to the moment I cut his throat".

It's a disturbing story captured so vividly by Capote's book, but the movie's focus isn't on the book itself - there's a 1967 movie for that. What sets this one apart is its focus on the person, on the author. The only issues that I have with it are that it didn't set up a tangible atmosphere when it really could have, which would've made the entire experience even better. It was just one of those pensive types of films, but it didn't elicit any feeling that I could've taken away, aside from the fact that it's slow and involves discussion about murders. The acting on all fronts was superb, and the cinematography was great, but it lacked that oomph which would've made it even better. Still, a really rewarding experience.

4 out of 5 stars