CAPOTE

Director: Bennett Miller

Stars: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Clifton Collins Jr., Chris Cooper, Bruce Greenwood, Mark Pellegrino

Year: 2005

Rating: R

Like Sean Penn in Milk, Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance in Capote is more a transformation - a channeling, it seems, of the soul of the real-life man into the body of the actor portraying him. Even as I typed in the names of the stars of this film above, I got all six names entered, along with director and year and rating, before I realized I'd typed "Truman Capote" where Hoffman's name should have been.

That is how strong his performance is in this brilliant, disturbing, yet lyrically beautiful film.

Capote doesn't chronicle the entire life of the celebrated, quirky writer of Breakfast at Tiffany's - but rather, the period of his life when Truman Capote became obsessed with the case of a farm family's murder in rural Kansas. Searching for the topic of his next book, Capote happens on an article in the New York Times about the crimes, and immediately flies to Kansas with his best friends Nelle (Catherine Keener) - who would soon become famous in her own right, after publishing To Kill a Mockingbird under the name "Harper Lee" a few years later. Nelle acts sort of as Capote's "interpreter" when the locals don't take too well to Truman's feminine manners and gentle voice, but soon both Nelle and Capote are let into the case, and even become friendly with the man investigating the crime, Alvin Dewey (Chris Cooper) and his family.

All the interviews and access to crime scene information help to begin formulating the book in Capote's mind, but everything becomes polarized when the pair of men accused of killing the Clutter family are caught and arrested ... and Capote becomes close, in particular, to one of them - a young man named Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.).

It's this relationship - and what lengths Capote will go to in his obsessive need to finish his new work - that drive the rest of the film. Capote gains the trust of Smith, even as he also betrays him, and the "friendship" they forge is such that viewers will at times both revel in and be repulsed by Capote and his methods and motives. Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of the author is nothing short of astonishing - not only in his physical transformation but even in the heart and soul that emanates from him; there's not a false note in this performance, and you never see Hoffman but always see - feel - Capote. It's a stunning, moving and visceral portrayal that's one of the best performances every committed to film, in a movie that remains riveting and unforgettable from first frame to last.

In fact, my one and only complaint regarding Capote - and it's not even a complaint about the actual film - is that Clifton Collins Jr. was not nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor. Long one of my favorite actors, Collins is absolutely chameleon-like in ever role he plays, losing himself in the character. Here, as Perry Smith, he brings such a deep emotional core to the character of a killer, even as you know (and learn more about) what Smith did, at the same time you can't help but like and feel for the guy. It's a heartbreaking, fully-realized performance that deserved at least a nomination, if not the Oscar itself, and somehow Collins manages to always slip under the radar of being recognized as one of the finest actors working in film today - and you won't find any better example of his capabilities in this, a nearly perfect film. ***** - Reel Must-See