Infamous (2006)

This movie was, if you will, infamously unfortunate in its timing: It came out months after Capote and had a very similar focus, so many dismissed it. It doesn't enjoy quite as high ratings from IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes. But maybe a decade of distance will help me evaluate it on its own terms.

As in Capote, Truman Capote (Toby Jones herein), already a bestselling author, gets engrossed in researching two men on death row who murdered a family after an unsuccessful burglary. Here, however, we get to see him express deeper feelings about one murderer, Perry Smith (Daniel Craig with an American accent). While partner in crime Dick Hickock (Lee Pace) is a mostly amoral motormouth, Perry is both morally and intellectually complicated -- and slow to trust anyone with his life story, tho Truman threatens to make stuff up for his new quasi-reporting style. In time, they almost develop a romance.

Yeah, where Capote acknowledges the protagonist's sexual orientation in little more than mannerisms and offhand remarks, Infamous makes it pretty integral to the story. Apparently, he was rather open about it even with strangers, who sometimes mistook him for a woman, unless they were making fun of him. In any case, according to both films, he tended to overcome their initial distaste with high charisma, becoming the life of the party; but on matters of business, he could be a bit of a scoundrel. (Infamous doesn't get into his role in keeping the inmates alive for a while before discontinuing the effort.)

I'm undecided on whether Jones outdoes the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in authenticity of portrayal. From the real-life footage that I've seen, their audiovisual matches are about a draw. But I'm not the only one who finds Jones a little more convincing as a character. He seems less stilted and more immersed. If not for Hoffman's recent Oscar, he would have had a good shot.

At the same time, Jones doesn't dominate our attention to the same degree. Small wonder there's quite an all-star cast at work: Sandra Bullock (as the late Harper Lee), Sigourney Weaver, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Daniels, Isabella Rossellini, Peter Bogdanovich.... By contrast, Capote offers little more among famous names than Catherine Keener and Chris Cooper.

The other big difference between the movies is in the directors' styles. Neither Capote's Bennett Miller nor Infamous' Douglas McGrath has directed much else, tho Miller has the slight upper hand in prestige. From what I recall, McGrath takes a more patient approach, often breaking for a pseudo-documentary monologue by one of the characters talking about Truman. His movie feels more packed with information, for better or worse, despite a marginally shorter run time.

Having seen the 1967 adaptation of In Cold Blood, I took some interest in comparing the details we get about the fateful night of the murders. They mostly match but, unsurprisingly, are less sanitized. While they don't take up a whole lot of screen time, they might make the difference in a viewer's willingness to tune in.

I'll have to watch Capote again for a fairer assessment. But taken by itself, Infamous winds up about equally satisfying. Maybe I'll actually read one of the guy's books thanks to these movies.