Review: Capote (2005)

Title: Capote
Year: 2005
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Clifton Collins Jr., Chris Cooper
Genres: Drama, Historical
MPAA: R for some violent images and brief strong language
Kids-In-Mind.com: 2.6.5
My Rating: 8.3
IMDb Rating: 7.6

Synopsis: Truman Capote (Hoffman), while researching for an article about four murders in rural Kansas with his friend Nelle Harper Lee (Keener), forms a relationship with one of the convicted murderers, Perry Smith (Collins). Essentially "using" Smith for information, Capote decides to write a book about the murders rather than an article after gaining so much information. With the approval of the police chief Alvin Dewey (Cooper), Capote writes one of the most hailed pieces of non-fiction in writing, "In Cold Blood".

My Take: Hoffman's portrayal of Capote is nothing short of outstanding. Granted, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor that year. The R rating on this film puzzles me. With only one "f-word" the whole film and very limited violence, this film is probably appropriate for children as young as 14 or 15 and fits in the category of extremely light R-rated films with "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Frost/Nixon". I'm also puzzled by the 7.6 rating on IMDb. I feel it's a much better film than that. While a 7.6 is still quite decent, this film is quite top notch and merited a high eight from me.

Concerning the rating: The 8.3 earned by this film from me puts it in a tie for 26th with eleven other films out of 122 films rated.

In queue: The Silence of the Lambs (1991), The Wrestler (2008), Fight Club (1999), Pulp Fiction (1994)

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