-the name might be a little off, but what’s right on, is the performance of Toby Jones as Truman Capote. Yet despite his direct-from-the-grave-spooky-resemblance and larger than life depiction, one can’t help but compare this to last year’s version “Capote” starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who took home the Best Actor Oscar. And so the first question is which actor did a better job? The answer: Both. Jones is Capote, but at times his over-the-top animated antics, make the seriousness of investigating material for his book “In Cold Blood” feels like he suffocates the dramatic aspect. On the other hand, Hoffman’s dark and solemn performance matched the mood of the subject matter – a murdered family in Kansas – what Capote endured at the crime scene and with the prisoners. “Infamous” focuses on the fish out of water angle – a New York socialite decides to head out to the Midwest sniffing out a potential story for a magazine. And what a socialite he is! The society scenes of this movie are right on the money (no pun intended). I could almost feel what the velvety-sofa, of an upper east side apartment, circa 1960 felt like! Sigourney Weaver as Babe Paley, Gwenyth Paltrow as Peggy Lee and Juliet Stevenson as Diana Vreeland have their roles nailed. Even Sandra Bullock does a fine job as Capote’s best friend, novelist Harper Lee, though we can’t help but feel we prefer last year’s performance by Catherine Keener. As for the directing, Douglas McGrath tends to be all-over-the-place beginning with a movie that’s light and frivolous before getting comfortable in the more serious tones. His movie – while about the making of “In Cold Blood” – is more about the transition that comes over Capote as a man. Last year’s newcomer director Bennett Miller got more out of his actors. He seemed to track the movie with the right dose of pacing and visual artistry. Of course in the end, the biggest thought is if only the real Truman Capote were alive to see two movies made about him. How many legends can say that? He’d have thrown quite the soiree for both. Three tiaras
