Originally posted: 16 March 09
12 Days: 12 Movies
Day Four: CAPOTE
(2005, 114mins, Dir. Bennett Miller)
Put Simply: It's too long and not enough happens.
Stars: Phillip Seymour Hoffman
When Bennett Miller finishes building his time machine, I want my two fucking hours back.
I know that's probably unneccessarily harsh, but I just didn't get what's so great about this. It's deeply ironic that I can tell that Hoffman is brilliant-as-usual in his portrayal of the American writer Truman Capote. You can tell he's so deeply immersed in the role that he's really feeling every word, gesture and emote. It's also ironic that the cinematography here is beautiful, capturing the harsh isolation of the Kansas landscape, and the tense, muted feel of 1960's America. But those lingering shots of Kansas are at the root of the problem for me.
The film's just too damned slow. The establishing shots are all about 3-5 seconds too long, and all the sighing and arkward silences just leave me bored. The thing is, as fine as the acting is (across the board), I just can't sympathise with any of the characters. Consequentally, I didn't care what happened to them. Pfft.
This film won many awards, and rightly so because it's beautifully made. But it's not for me.
I reckon: 3/10
Tomorrow: Two Tickets to Paradise (really, this time)
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organizations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
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