Sometimes coming in second can be a good thing. While "Capote" stole the awards and the box office, "Infamous" covering much of the same ground involving writer Truman Capote fashioning his "novel" In Cold Blood surprised me by how much better it was as a drama and how much richer the performances were. I say surprised because of the structure of the film and the fact that I had "seen" this story already in its predecessor. ***

Director/writer Mark McGrath ("Emma" and the TV version of "Nickolas Nickleby") makes some fascinating and daring choices here. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD By implying that Capote fell in love with Smith, McGrath suggests his artistic decline and fall into despair pushed the writer into alcoholism ultimately destroying his art and, in the process, making him a shell of his former self. Dramatically it touches on what truly was missing behind the story that drove "Capote". Keith proves himself every bit the equal of Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffmann and I personally found his performance more nuanced, richer and with a deeper sense of humanity and vulnerability. Adapted from the book by the late journalist George Plimpton, McGrath makes the choice of putting intermittent interviews with the actors in character. While this is disruptive (much like "Reds") at first, if you're patient you'll discover that the contrast between what we see happening and what they say happened provides an additional perspective missing from "Capote". ***

Capote (Toby Keith) intrigued by the brutal murder of a family in a small rural Kansas town arranges to write an article for The New Yorker magazine. Capote already well known at the time having published six previous books so thinks he'll have no problem getting the town's people to talk to him about the family and the tragic events. He takes along his best friend Harper Lee who is waiting for her book To Kill a Mockingbird to be published. Lee provides the humanity and warmth missing from Capote who is witty, sarcastic and just doesn't fit in as a flamboyant gay man in the early 60's in Kansas. When the police officer investigating the case (Jeff Daniels) refuses to give him special access about the case, Capote finds that Lee is right-he has to open up himself to a certain extent but, more importantly, use those he knows (Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, Lauren Bacall and other celebrities he worked with at the time) to impress and break the ice for the locals. Once the killer's are caught Capote finds himself drawn into their world particularly that of Perry Smith (Daniel Craig from "Casino Royale", "Layer Cake" and "Munich" in a stunning performance). Capote has to put aside his defenses and truly open up to Smith who hides a soft, almost artistic soul beneath his hardened exterior. ---

Image & Sound:

"Infamous" receives a top notch transfer. Images are crisp, colors bright and the Kansas landscape is captured in all of its stark beauty. In contrast the sequences set in Manhattan with Capote's society friends (played by Hope Davis, Sigourney Weaver, Peter Bogdanovich as his publisher and, Gwyneth Paltrow, Isabella Rossellini, Juliet Stevenson) are bright, cheery looking as if we are in a perpetual party. Audio is as crisp as a cold morning in Kansas. ---

Director Mark McGrath provides a feature length commentary that is often fascinating focusing on everything from the creative decision he made for the opening nightclub sequence to why he chose to cast his film the way he did. Surprisingly, McGrath doesn't discuss the competing film which would have made the commentary catty (I'm sure he disagreed with the choices of director Bennett Miller and writer Dan Futterman made for their film) and that's to his credit. We also get the original theatrical trailer but no featurettes on Capote, the impact of his relationship with Perry and how McGrath believes it contributed to his artistic decline and fall into alcoholism. ---

Final Words: