Infamous (2006)

In 1959, the famed writer and social butterfly Truman Capote (Toby Jones) is intrigued by an article he reads in the newspaper about a farm family being murdered in Kansas. He decides to write a piece for the New Yorker magazine on the town's reaction to the killings. But after two men (Daniel Craig, Lee Pace) are arrested for the murders, he decides to write a non-fiction novel. Sometimes, two films dealing with the same subject matter get greenlighted at the same time. Usually, it's the first one out of the gate that gets the attention and INFAMOUS had the misfortune of following the Oscar winning CAPOTE by a year. They both deal with the period in Capote's life when he was writing IN COLD BLOOD. Personally, while I like both movies, I prefer INFAMOUS for several reasons. Jones' Capote is much more charming in his dizzy way, you can see what draws people to him and why they would confide. I didn't get that with Philip Seymour Hoffman. I also preferred Sandra Bullock's Harper Lee who seemed more genuine and genuinely Southern than Catherine Keener. Clearly, the film takes liberties and much of the scenes are filtered through Capote's eyes which are not to be trusted and there's enough ambiguity in Jones' performance to make you wonder exactly how pure Capote's motives were. Written and directed by Douglas McGrath. With Sigourney Weaver, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Daniels, Isabella Rossellini, Hope Davis, Juliet Stevenson, Peter Bogdanovich and John Benjamin Hickey.