Capote’s humanity haunts frames of ‘Infamous’

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On DVD

INFAMOUS, written and directed by Douglas McGrath, based on the book “Truman Capote” by George Plimpton, 118 minutes, rated R.

When he became popular, everything about Truman Capote was a shock – his personality, the punchy little lilt in which he spoke, his haughty air, his homosexuality, his absolute sense of daring. Looking at him in photographs or on television talk shows, you either are bemused, transfixed or horrified – sometimes all at once. He was a gifted, weird little genius, complex beyond reason, smart enough to use his quirks to his benefit, and then careless and human enough to fall prey to them all.

Both sides of Capote are examined in Douglas McGrath’s “Infamous,” which McGrath adapted from George Plimpton’s book, “Truman Capote.” Unlike 2005’s richer, deeper “Capote,” which featured an Academy Award-winning performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman in the title role, “Infamous” is at first a much lighter movie. It romps deliriously in a vacuum of camp, trotting out the freak show of those closest to Capote, including Babe Paley (Sigourney Weaver), Diana Vreeland (Juliet Stevenson), Slim Keith (Hope Davis) and Random House’s Bennett Cerf (Peter Bogdanovich). Midway through, though, the tone shifts, with the emerging darkness allowing the movie to leave a satisfying mark.

Following “Capote,” McGrath weaves through the debris of what Capote (Toby Jones) wrought when inspiration struck thanks to a New York Times article he read about a clutch of murdered Clutters in the Kansas hamlet of Holcomb.

It was 1959, the deaths were brutal, the details intriguing. Fresh from the success of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and looking for a new triumph in a new work, Capote found both in this felled Midwestern family, whose heads were blown off in cold blood by Perry Smith (Daniel Craig, the new James Bond) and Richard Hickcock (Lee Pace).

With his magazine, The New Yorker, behind him, Capote decided to leave New York City and his partner, Jack Dunphy (John Benjamin Hickey), to get the story with the help of his childhood friend, Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock). It would take him almost six years to do so, during which time Lee would enjoy some success of her own, specifically the release of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Meanwhile, Capote wrote his own masterpiece, “In Cold Blood,” with the experience proving more emotionally devastating than he could have imagined.

“Infamous” is at its weakest when it adopts an awkward, faux-documentary style that feels shoehorned into the script thanks to the influence of Plimpton’s book. This intrusion of people talking at the screen – Vreeland, Cerf, Paley, others – is a fine example of what works on the page doesn’t necessarily work when adapted for a movie. That said, the film nevertheless is a find. It’s at its best with Jones’ memorable performance and when it focuses on Capote’s unexpected relationship with Perry, a man the movie claims he came to love in spite of all that Perry did.

Capote related to Perry – they had similar upbringings, each having been abandoned by their mothers. As the movie unfolds, what McGrath gets exactly right is that if you separate Capote’s fine clothing from Perry’s prison uniform, peel away their personalities to their cores, what you’re left with are two men who weren’t so different from each other. The director understands that writing – or any creative endeavor, for that matter -can be just as cutthroat as committing murder. There’s passion involved in each, and where’s there’s passion, there can be blood. For McGrath, Perry and Capote were tragic, damaged individuals who ruined themselves.

While it was the act of murder that haunted “Capote,” it’s the act of being human that haunts “Infamous.”

Grade: B+

On Blu-ray disc

ENEMY OF THE STATE, directed by Tony Scott, written by David Marconi, 128 minutes, rated R.

One of the best thrillers of the 1970s was Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation,” which featured Gene Hackman as a surveillance expert who mistakenly becomes involved in a privacy-violation nightmare.

The film was effective not only because it dealt with larger issues – particularly the right to privacy – but because in Coppola’s capable hands, it wormed itself under your skin by raising one central, paranoid question: What if we all are being bugged?

That same question resurfaced in the 1988 film “Enemy of the State,” which now is available in high-definition on Blu-ray disc. Directed by Tony Scott, the film co-stars Gene Hackman as a paranoid surveillance expert who eavesdrops on others while living in a bug-proof environment remarkably similar to his hovel in “The Conversation.”

The film questions whether there is an underground surveillance society in America monitoring our phone calls for key words such as “president,” “bomb,” “abortion” and “Allah.” It wants to know whether we all are being listened to right now without our knowledge or consent. So, in the wake of 9-11, the movie remains especially timely.

What ensues is a fine piece of entertainment, which much of its success coming down to its competent script and excellent cast, spearheaded here by Will Smith. In “Enemy,” Mr. Smith goes to Washington, all right, but he may have wished he’d gone elsewhere.

As Robert Clayton Dean, a D.C.-based labor attorney, Smith unwittingly becomes involved in a government cover-up led by a ruthless NSA official played by John Voight. When Smith’s life is threatened, he’s forced to run, only stopping near film’s end to team up with Hackman in a risky effort to turn the tables on Voight – and, naturally, the government itself. The result is smart and briskly paced.

Grade: B

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays and Fridays in Lifestyle, and weekends in Television as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.

The Video-DVD Corner

Renting a video or a DVD? BDN film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

Annapolis – C-

The Ant Bully – B+

Babel – A-

The Black Dahlia – C-

Borat – B+

The Break-Up – B

Broken Arrow Blu-ray – C

Bullitt HD DVD and Blu-ray – A-

Cars – C

Casino Royale – A

Clerks II – B+

Click – C-

Crank – B+

Curious George – B

Date Movie – D-

The Da Vinci Code – C+

The Departed – A

The Descent – B+

The Devil Wears Prada – B+

Double Indemnity – A

Emergency: Season Three – B-

Employee of the Month – C

Failure to Launch – C-

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift – B

Fast Food Nation – B-

Flushed Away – B+

Flyboys – C-

Friends with Money – B

Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties – C+

The Getaway HD DVD and Blu-ray – C

The Gridiron Gang – C+

Half Nelson – A-

Hollywoodland – C

The Illusionist – B+

Infamous – B+

Inside Man – B+

Invincible – B

Jackass Number Two – B

Junebug – A

Kinky Boots – B+

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – B+

Last Holiday – B

The Libertine – D

Little Miss Sunshine – B+

Lucky Number Slevin – B

The Marine – C+

Miami Vice – C

Mission Impossible III – C-

Monster House – B+

Mr. & Mrs. Smith Blu-ray – B

Munich – A-

My Super Ex-Girlfriend – A-

Nacho Libre – C

The Omen – B-

Open Season – B

Over the Hedge – B

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest – B-

Poseidon – B

A Prairie Home Companion – C

The Prestige – B+

Revenge of the Nerds: Panty Raid Edition – B-

Running with Scissors – C+

Shut Up & Sing – A-

Silence of the Lambs: Collector’s Edition – A

16 Blocks – B

Slither – B

Snakes On A Plane: A-

Stay Alive – D-

Superman Returns – C+

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby – B

This Film is Not Yet Rated – B-

United 93 – A

V for Vendetta – B+

The Wicker Man – BOMB

World Trade Center – A

X-Men: The Last Stand – B-

You, Me and Dupree – C-