Barnes & Noble

The "other" Truman Capote movie -- kept on the shelf for a year to avoid competing with Capote -- can’t help but remain in the shadow of the hit film. But that doesn’t mean Infamous isn’t worth seeing; on the contrary, it would no doubt be more highly regarded (and certainly better known) had Capotenever been made. Writer-director Douglas McGrath covers much the same ground as did the earlier picture, although he presents a more overtly sexual interpretation of the relationship between Capote and murderer Perry Smith (played by an effective Daniel Craig, pre-007 fame). But he comes to the same conclusion that Capote reached: The irony of the writer’s career is that the success of In Cold Blood -- his brilliant novelistic account of the murders committed by Smith and Richard Hickock (Lee Pace) -- doomed Capote, because of the moral compromises its creation entailed. Sandra Bullock contributes an understated performance as Capote’s plainspoken friend, Harper Lee, who found her own literary success with To Kill a Mockingbird. McGrath pays considerable attention to Capote’s high-toned social circle, stocking a veritable parade of well-known actors in cameo roles, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Sigourney Weaver, Isabella Rossellini, Hope Davis, and even director Peter Bogdanovich. Physically, British actor Toby Jones is an even better match for Capote than Oscar-winning Phillip Seymour Hoffman, also nailing Truman’s distinctively nasal, whiny voice and flamboyant mannerisms. Judged on its own merits, Infamous is a compelling, effective, and memorable motion picture, one that richly deserves the exposure that its DVD release offers. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

Douglas McGrath's Infamous represents the second major biopic about the avant-garde belletrist Truman Capote to be released within a year. It thus tells roughly the same story as Bennett Miller's earlier Capote, recounting the events that belied the writer's six-year authorship of the seminal "nonfiction novel" In Cold Blood. The story opens with Capote (Toby Jones) visiting the site of the 1959 Clutter family homicide, on a Kansas research trip, accompanied by his close friend and colleague, author Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock). As Capote settles into the community, McGrath uses the preponderance of screen time to explore the emotional tapestry of Capote's increasingly risky emotional attachment to one of the two murderers, Perry Edward Smith (Daniel Craig), with whom he senses more than a few common bonds. McGrath weaves a decidedly bittersweet tale, contrasting the optimism and devil-may-care, "conquer all" attitude of Capote in his early years with a seemingly endless string of poor choices in the writer's later years, from addictions to drink and pills, to a failure to maintain healthy output as a writer, to poorly chosen romantic and sexual entanglements. Most significantly, however, McGrath reveals how the relationship with Smith virtually destroyed Capote as an artist and a human being, by inducing him to sell out on all levels to satisfy his lust for accomplishment and notoriety. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Product Details

• UPC: 085391137382
• Source: WARNER HOME VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Français, Español
• Time: 1:58:00
• Sales Rank: 16,563

Features:

DVD MENU