Like the movie Capote, Infamous deals exactly with the same story line. Truman Capote reads about the murder of a Kansas family and decides to write about it, the result being the infamous book, In Cold Blood. While researching the book, Truman Capote (Toby Jones) develops a close relationship with convicted murderers Perry Smith (Daniel Craig) and Dick Hickock (Lee Pace).
I found it interesting to see how director Douglas McGrath was able to show the same story and yet come up with different angles or a slightly different point of view than Bennett Miller's version of the same story.
One significant difference that was explored in Infamous was Capote's relationship with Perry Smith. The two men develop a much closer bond than in Capote in some ways. Specifically, Infamous delves a little more into how Perry may have actually been in love with Truman.
Naturally, Toby Smith brings a different take and style to Truman's character in this movie and I thought that it was a very good portrayal. I'm not sure that I would go as far as to say that I thought his performance was better or worse than Philip Seymour Hoffman's. They both did excellent jobs and both brought the character to life in a very eerie way.
If there's anything that I really didn't like about Infamous, it would have to be the way that Sandra Bullock got billed, or perhaps a better phrase would be, didn't get billed. Sandra Bullock plays Nelle Harper Lee, a very significant character in the story with lots of screen time and yet, on the DVD cover she doesn't get mentioned and in the credits she is given second rate billing. Sigourney Weaver, who plays Babe Paley and who barely figures into the story gets top billing. Gwyneth Paltrow, who plays Kitty Dean and is on screen for only a few minutes, also gets top billing… It's annoying because Harper Lee is a much more important character and Sandra Bullock does a great job as Harper Lee.
All in all I found Infamous to be enjoyable and a fascinating look at an interesting person and question and event, but I'm still not keen to ever read Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.
Related Posts:
- Mini Review of Capote the Movie
- In Memoriam: Truman Capote
