taswavo999 Awesome film - takes some getting used to - unless you find out that the portrayal of the early part if the film is true. Toby Jones was awesome and I comment the casting having scene what Truman looked like and knowing how awesome Jones is. The 'lesser parts' make for an awesome list and all were, as we expect, brilliant(Weaver, Paltrow, Stevenson, Davis, Bogdanovich and Rossellini). Brilliant and MADE the film as the lesser parts. Otherwise the main plot made no sense - essential to the film.A masterwork - screenplay, acting, directing and even the editing and cinematography.Well done indeed.

moonspinner55 Toby Jones' uncanny portrayal of author Truman Capote is really the only reason to see "Infamous". Following on the heels of Bennett Miller's "Capote" from 2005, which covers the same ground as "Infamous"--and netted Philip Seymour Hoffman a Best Actor Oscar besides--the film feels like an also-ran. In the aftermath of the senseless killings of an innocent farm family in Kansas, curious Capote and companion Harper Lee descend upon the small town residents of Holcomb for details and facts about the victims for a proposed article Capote hopes to write (which eventually became the fictionalized non-fiction bestseller, "In Cold Blood"). Jones offers a far more flamboyant characterization of Truman Capote than Hoffman's somewhat damp and subdued portrayal (which made him a bit more approachable to the locals). This Capote is a petulant, persistent and flirtatious little man, an outrageous raconteur and celebrity name-dropper with no edit-button—and no desire to tone down his flaming personality to fit in with the people of Holcomb. It would be impossible not to compare the two performances, and each is excellent in its own way, but Hoffman is more effective during the crucial stretch in the story—when Capote interviews the two incarcerated men who committed the murders, and develops an affection for the brooding Perry Smith. Jones and a miscast Daniel Craig (as Smith) can't break through the plastic coating that permeates their scenes together in the prison, and the rest of "Infamous" feels nearly as artificial. Everyone here is working with great style and aplomb, but there isn't much emotion applied to the circumstance surrounding the events in the film. Capote tours the house where the murders took place, but nothing is built upon this…and nothing is accomplished in the friendship between Truman and Harper Lee (played by Sandra Bullock, as if she were stifling a headache). The production is handsome and some of the dialogue passages are very fine, but the picture isn't convincing on the most elemental of levels. Director Douglas McGrath would much rather dwell on a party sequence with Capote and friends learning the Twist rather than probe these tumultuous personalities with any depth. ** from ****

Enoch Sneed I first saw 'Capote' and Philip Seymour Hoffman knocked me out, truly, I thought he was great. I had never even heard of this version until I found the DVD for sale in a second-hand shop and was intrigued to see what it made of the same basic events.Now I am a whole-hearted 'Infamous' fan, while still paying my respects to 'Capote' which seems to have higher production values and better cinematography (all those beautiful shots of the Kansas - or is that Canadian? - plains). Why? Because this film does not just show Truman Capote as lying (no title for the book, "I've hardly written a word"), selfish, manipulative, consumed with self-pity when he can't get the ending to his book, and ultimately ashamed of himself for wanting Perry Smith to hang.Here Truman Capote sets out to write his masterpiece, and slowly comes to realise that he really cares about one of the people involved. He never expected writing a book about others would have an impact on himself, that the society lifestyle he loved would show itself to be shallow and unsatisfying in the face of the brutality of murder and execution. This is where Toby Jones scores over PSH, in my view. He shows more depth and a fuller view of Capote's personality and feelings as the case drags on through the courts. His Capote seems to be asking himself: 'What do I really feel about this? How do I face the reality of it?' Another strength of this version is Sandra Bullock's Harper Lee. You can see why Capote needed her common-sense and friendship, while he could still feel he was her superior in terms of output.If you have seen 'Capote', do watch this too, it is well worth it.

tcbently I guess it's indicative of the general craziness of the movie industry that two films about the same person came out within a year of each other. For my money, there's not much to choose between them, despite the fact that it was Philip Seymour Hoffman/'Capote' which grabbed the Oscar and most of the critical acclaim. However, it's Toby Jones who is - physically - Truman Capote, in so much as he's a tiny dynamo of a man, who flounces around Kansas in scarves and fur-collared coats but is able to needle the police detective at arm-wrestling. Jones is totally convincing. Less happily, Sandra Bullock is much too beautiful to mouse around small-town Holcomb as Capote's friend and fellow writer Harper Lee. This is also part of the problem with casting Daniel Craig as one of the murderers: he's too chiselled and not especially good at being a rodeo-riding American. Sigourney Weaver, Hope Davis and Gwyneth Paltrow excel as Capote's NY society friends and some of the best scenes in the film involve them in ensemble performances: cutting a rug at cocktail parties or testifying to camera about their friend's rise and fall, after his death. It's at these points that you remember that 'Infamous' is based on George Plimpton's book 'Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career', a collection of reminiscences about Capote.