Infamous

This second picture in as many years about the effect that writing In Cold Blood had on Truman Capote covers the same ground as Bennett Miller's subdued but powerful Capote (for which Philip Seymour Hoffman won an Oscar), but it isn't nearly as good. In the lead role, Toby Jones looks very much like Capote (and he's got the peculiar voice down as well), but his performance still lacks the shadings and undercurrents Hoffman brought to the part. Still, it's not superficiality that ultimately makes Infamous a distant runner-up in the Capote sweepstakes; rather, it's writer-director Douglas McGrath's decision to ramp up the intensity of the relationship between Capote and killer Perry Smith. What Miller treated with satisfying ambiguity, McGrath makes explicit, not only in the dialogue (which has a faintly melodramatic air), but in one miscalculated scene, when an angry Smith manhandles Capote in a way that turns into something sexual. Daniel Craig, the new James Bond, also seems badly cast as Smith, which he plays tight-lipped and stiff in a manner more suggestive of the actor's discomfort with the role rather than Smith's attitude of mingled arrogance and fear (by contrast, Sandra Bullock as Capote's friend Harper Lee and Jeff Daniels as the local detective who befriends the writer, are both solid). While Capote will definitely be remembered, Infamous is more likely destined to wind up as a minor cinematic footnote. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by screenwriter-director Douglas McGrath, and trailers. Bottom line: a small extras package for a film that plays like Capote-lite.] (F. Swietek)