Catherine Keener, Clifton Collins Jr., Mark Pellegrino

On assignment to write an article for 'The New Yorker,' Truman Capote traveled to a small Kansas town, where he began to investigate and report on the gruesome murder of a local family. At first leery...( read more  read more... ) of the writer, the townsfolk come to trust Capote and allow him into their lives, giving him his story.

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72% liked it

29,846 ratings

Critics

90% liked it

178 critics

R, 1 hr. 38 min.

Directed by: Bennett Miller

Release Date: September 30, 2005

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DVD Release Date: March 14, 2006

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Flixster Reviews (6,337)


  • October 2, 2009
    PSH is great, no doubt there, but the film feels a bit uneven in it's focus.
  • September 14, 2009
    Hoffman deserved his Oscar, and Keener was great as always. It's funny how two films about Truman Capote came out in close concession, I haven?t seen the other one but it will have to be good to beat this one!
  • July 30, 2009
    Capote delivers on its biggest promise: an outstanding (Oscar-recognized) performance by the one and only PSH. Slow-paced but impossible to turn away from, it's a sort of "biopic by numbers" that is nevertheless compelling thanks to the hero's double-bind: he is stuck between nee...( read more)ding to let his subject die and wanting to save him, and the drama comes from the conflict inside the man and its effect on him as a writer.

    A related knock against biopics as a whole: is anyone else tired of the "this will really change [hero's metier] forever" line in this kind of movie? I know, I know, it's filmic hindsight, some kind of dramatic irony that allows the audience to say "hey, that's right, it _did_ change...", but can you actually imagine sitting in a room with Truman Capote (or Ray Charles, or Johnny Cash, or Muhammad Ali, etc.) and actually talking about how great he is? It seems like the most pompous conversation in the world... anyway, my rant, Capote is good for a biopic.
  • July 14, 2009
    Creepy movie. Truman Capote wasn't a saint, and the movie portrays it in a scary way, how he took advantage of the killers (specially Perry Smith, beautifully played by Clifton Collins, Jr.), how he didn't care about what happened to them. Everything has been said about Hoffman's...( read more) performance and I think no one has realized how extraordinary the cinematography in this movie is, seriously: by far, one of the most amazing cinematography achievements of the decade.
  • January 6, 2009
    The best way to gauge a great acting performance is for you to spend the entire length of the film you're watching believing that you're seeing THAT character up on screen, not just the actor whose playing him. That's what you get with Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote. He ...( read more)becomes Truman Capote as DeNiro became Lamotta. It's a total transformation in which the actor gets lost inside the character and it pays dividends in the final product.

    The film is basically a look at the making of Truman Capote's masterpiece book In Cold Blood, the story of two drifters who murder a family in a Kansas farmhouse in late 1959. It starts out as a simple magazine article, but the idea explodes as Capote's relationship with one of the men becomes closer and his obsession with the book grows deeper.

    Capote is an emotional film, yet there are no happy endings. There's no happiness at all. The film is more a document of what Capote did to get his masterpiece and what he paid when he got it. Two sides and the demons fighting each other back and forth. And Hoffman gives us all of that in all of its detail and shows us how a sad story can become even sadder.
  • November 8, 2009
    very interesting move...
  • November 6, 2009
    "Ever since I was a child, folks have thought they had me pegged, because of the way I am, the way I talk. And they're always wrong."

    This film will always be commended for Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of Truman Capote, and he really does do an impeccable job so tha...( read more)t it's more a disappearance into the man rather than an imitation. He captures his voice and gestures brilliantly, and it really is a treat to watch.

    I didn't particularly like Truman Capote after watching this film - although it's very much centered around the story of the two men who murdered a family 'In Cold Blood', as the title of Capote's book later suggests, and is focussed less so on a biographical account of Capote's life, we do see a lot of his character revealed through how he deals with this situation. They created a very honest depiction of the man, showing how self-absorbed he predominantly was, to the extent of wanting to exploit this story and the murderers for his own ends. He clearly does feel something for Perry Smith by the end of it, but his motives were still essentially selfish, and so I couldn't come out of the film feeling very fond of Capote.

    Nevertheless, this probably wasn't their intention or else they would have portrayed him through a rose-tinted lens - and it really is a brilliant film; perhaps a bit slow for some people, but I was gripped from beginning to end. Worth watching for the brilliant performances if anything.

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  • October 28, 2009
    Well done and interesting - not sure how accurate, however
  • October 27, 2009
    What a perfect film! Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance was mesmerizing. The sense of atmosphere, texture, and paranoia was captured perfectly! This has to be one of the best films of the 2000s!
  • October 27, 2009
    A very dark and wintery film. Philip Seymour Hoffman gives a marvelous performance in his entire career.

Critic Reviews


February 7, 2006
Kurt Loder, MTV

The picture is filled with unusually fine performances, but the one at its center (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is the most serenely astonishing performance of the year. full review

October 21, 2005
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

The great strength of Miller's film -- aside from Hoffman's brilliant portrayal -- is that it both tells the story behind Capote's masterpiece, the true-crime tale In Cold Blood, and serves as an homa... full review

October 21, 2005
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Capote is a film of uncommon strength and insight. full review

October 15, 2005
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

Redeemed by Hoffman, who magnificently captures the shrill, needy egotism of the legendary author. full review

September 30, 2005
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

The movie is both ruthlessly critical of its subject and unabashedly affectionate toward him, and Hoffman hits every note so it rings true. full review

September 30, 2005
Claudia Puig, USA Today

Hoffman delivers a thrilling and profound Oscar-caliber performance that will haunt viewers well after the movie is over. full review

September 29, 2005
David Edelstein, Slate

Hoffman goes beyond the surface mannerisms and diction. He disappears into Capote. full review

September 27, 2005
A.O. Scott, The New York Times

Bennett Miller's film is a fascinating and fine-grained reconstruction of the period in which Truman Capote wrote In Cold Blood.

September 22, 2005
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Hoffman's unmissable and unforgettable performance as Truman Capote should make him the front-runner for every Best Actor prize in the book. full review

View more Capote reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • stef911
    June 13, 2006
    Brilliant-when you come out the cinema it's a feeling you can't explain-both funny and tearjerking-Hoffman plays Capote brilliantly as does his actress side-kick.It made me want to read 'In Cold Blood' and 'To kill a Mockingbird'.

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Capote Trivia


  • Which actor was in Capote, Mission Impossible 3, and Red Dragon  Answer »
  • Phillip Seymore Hoffman won an Oscar for his role in capote ?  Answer »
  • Who plays Harper Lee, famous author of To Kill a Mockingbird and longtime friend of Truman Capote, in the film Capote? (Hint: She was also in The 40-Year-Old Virgin.)  Answer »
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