Truman Capote is presented in the Oscar Winning performance by Phillip Seymour Hoffman in this movie about the writing of In Cold Blood. Catherine Keener plays his oldest friend Harper “Nelle” Lee, Bruce Greenwood as his boyfriend Jack Dunphy Chris Cooper plays Agent Alvin Dewey, and the killers are portrayed by Mark Pellegrino and Clifton Collins Jr.
This is very much a film about being a writer and where the line of morals blurs with telling the best story. When Capote hears about a grizzly murder of a Kansas family, he excitedly tells the presses that he will be covering the case, creating a new kind of true crime genre.
The movie starts with general investigation where Nelle acts as a buffer between the small town residents and Capote. He does manage to win over some witnesses, however he mostly rubs people the wrong way. A part of you can’t blame him for head butting against small mindedness, yet there are times he oversteps. He also strains his relationship with his boyfriend, Jack, by being away so long as well as his closeness to Nelle, who is celebrating To Kill a Mockingbird being bought by a publisher at that time. He does win over the lead agent on the case, Alvin Dewey, which gives him first hand insight.
However, it is when the two murders are apprehended that Capote starts to lose control over his own part in the story. He struggles with a connection he feels to one of the killers. He grows depressed and excited at the same time, withholding information from the killers in hopes of getting the full story out of them. The movie shows how Capote’s attempts to create a whole new genre breaks him.
