INFAMOUS (2006)
Written and Directed by Douglas McGrath
Starring: Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock, Daniel Craig, Hope Davis, Sigourney Weaver, Juliet Stevenson, Jeff Daniels, Peter Bogdanovich, Isabella Rossellini and Gwyneth Paltrow          
Watson Scale (0 being worst and 6 being perfect) 4.5

Reviewed by Clement von Franckenstein

 
It's fascinating to compare two excellent films on the same intriguing subject, with all their different pros and cons. Philip Seymour Hoffman deservedly won the Oscar last year for his searing portrayal of Truman Capote, but here we have an equally brilliant, but very different rendering from the diminutive (5 foot tall) Shakespearian actor Toby Jones, who was also wonderful as Helen Mirren's faithful courtier Henry Cecil in ELIZABETH I for HBO.

Writer/director Douglas McGrath has wisely chosen in this version to include Truman's "swans" -- the bored rich tycoon wives for whom he shamelessly acts as court jester and confidante -- except that he can never keep any of their secrets!

The wonderful English actress Juliet Stevenson is right on (voice, hair and all) as the vituperative editor Diana Vreeland, Hope Davis (as usual) is excellent as Slim Keith, the ex-wife of director Howard Hawks. Sigourney Weaver captures the loneliness of Babe Paley, the wife of CBS chief William Paley. And Isabella Rossellini is also good as Marella Agnelli, the wife of playboy Fiat tycoon Gianni Agnelli.

Sandra Bullock is adequate as Truman's best friend and confidante Nelle Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, but she cannot hold a candle to Catherine Keener's brilliant Oscar nominated performance in the earlier film. Jeff Daniels matches Chris Cooper's solid portrayal in CAPOTE as Alvin Dewey, and Peter Bogdanovich is surprisingly effective as Bennett Cerf, Truman's flamboyant gay publisher.

Gwyneth Paltrow does a lovely turn, showing off her excellent singing voice as Kitty Dean a sultry New York nightclub chanteuse in the film's opening sequence. One wishes that McGrath had shown more of Truman's quick decline into booze and drugs during the last ten years of his life, which would have illustrated more of his vile side and would have given his role the range shown in Hoffman's performance (for example, in CAPOTE Hoffman throws a self-pitying drunken hissy-fit at the post premiere party of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and totally spoils Harper Lee's big night). It would also have been satisfying to have seen him dumped at the end by his "swans" after seeing themselves brutally dissed as thinly disguised patrons of the fictional restaurant "Le Cote Basque" in one of the chapters of his unfinished novel, ANSWERED PRAYERS.

Apparently a deluded Capote is quoted as saying, "Oh, they're all far too stupid to recognize themselves!" But they did instantly, and hell hath no fury as women scorned! Talk about "biting the hands that feed you!" He died ten months later a lonely and abandoned man.

Daniel Craig, the newest James Bond and an excellent actor, is unfortunately miscast in the role of killer Perry Smith (he replaced Mark Ruffalo at two weeks notice, who had to remain and film fruitless re-takes for the ill-fated ALL THE KING'S MEN).

Perry Smith, a native American Indian, was portrayed by a young Robert Blake (himself an American Indian) in the famous film IN COLD BLOOD and by a non-star American Indian actor in CAPOTE.

Craig towers over the tiny Jones and is too charismatic and forceful for a tormented closet homosexual killer. They make strange bedfellows, and director McGrath really goes for the gay sex angle (shades of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN?), including a long lingering lip-lock in the tiny cell that was only hinted at in CAPOTE and hence made that relationship more interesting to watch.

Toby Jones matches Seymour Hoffman's performance stride for stride, mastering the incredibly difficult fey voice ("what a brussel sprout would sound like if it could talk" according to Gore Vidal) and mannerisms, and playing both the light comedy and deeply tragic moments brilliantly, but he makes this appalling bitchy little man almost too likeable. Herein lies his problem, as CAPOTE gave Seymour Hoffman much more range to show what a monster Truman could be.    

The costumes (Ruth Myers) production design (Judy Becker) editing (Camilla Toniolo) and cinematography by Bruno Delbonnel are all excellent. If one could only have had CAPOTE with the swans and "Cote Basque" debacle included, that would have been a perfect film!