Movie: Infamous
General Info
Title: Infamous
Year: 2006
In Short
Literary giant Truman Capote has almost everything that he wants; he’s the cream of the crop of the New York social elite, his books are well-read and enjoy great reviews, and he can live his life with his lover in a relaxed manner in the still homophobic 1950’s. Then he reads an article about a rich farming family that were brutally murdered and he is immediately fascinated. He decides to go the scene of the murder in rural America to explore the story..
The Movie
Visuals
Hmm.. The New York scenes are okay, nothing very special about the socialites and their lifestyle. The opening scene was quite well displayed, liked that. The rural scenes were much better, especially during the scenes where Capote’s interviewing the locals. I particulary enjoyed the train station scenes, reminding me a bit of Bad Day At Black Rock.
Plot
A story revolving the Capote character delivers what you’d expect: sharp dialogues, very nice! The story has a nice pacing, never feeling too rushed or too slow; nice and well portrayed character development. For a pseudo biopic it never tries to explain waaay too much, you have to wonder if people who don’t know anything about the writer and his works can keep up with the story, I’m guessing it works fine for them too.
That’s also where the plot is very, very strong for me: I remember reading In Cold Blood and the chills that went down my spine while reading. The story kept triggering those shivers without any actual triggering it seemed, I liked that.
The handling of the new love angle was very unexpected, no hold on, the whole new love angle was very unexpected, but it was handled okay. Another male-on-male liplock without the whole Brokeback Mountain brouhaha.
Cast
Main lead Toby Jones was excellent, the annoying voice even seemed less irratable after twenty-odd minutes; but the actor did just more than that, he went out of his way to depict a larger than life character with a fine attention for detail.
The Hollywood Cameo set with the likes of Sigourney Weaver, Gwyneth Paltrow and Isabella Rossellini weren’t really impressive as the New York elite, but were quite entertaining. Sandra Bullock as the quiet and intelligent author Harper Lee kinda worked for me; I think Bullock is working very hard to get more serious and interesting roles for herself. I wonder if she’ll succeed..
Extra credit for Daniel Craig, the new 007 shows a great bit of thought-provoking talent. The way this guys performing his roles could make the James Bond franchise very exciting again.
Conclusion
Tricky stuff.. I know that the book and its impact on my psyche weigh very heavily on how I experienced the film. It sure as hell didn’t disappoint, that’s for sure. I was having flashbacks from the book and the movie version from 1967, and like I said earlier: I enjoyed being triggered by the movie. But take away those positives, does the movie itself have any good points? Definitely, although it did take me some time to realize that: nicely
written, well performed, okay visuals.
I didn’t expect the love interest in the story and I was very much curious about the real facts behind that story, but Capote and his biographer could be playing around with the truth.
Rating: 
(sharp and witty, sometimes thought-prevoking)
September 16th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Frenchy, it’s good to see your film reviews making a comeback on Fracas. I’ve been interested in this film specifically because I was interested in seeing Bullock’s characterization of Harper Lee. I happy to see her taking on more serious roles, because there is more to this woman than comedy. Being the film buff that you are, I’d be interested in hearing what you think of Canadian national treasure David Cronenberg’s films. The Toronto International Film Fest just finished here in the city, and Eastern Promises his latest,was voted best film. I’ve heard it’s a departure from the gore of A History Of Violence. Viggo has become to David, as Leo has become to Scorsese. What I’m trying to say beneath all of this babbling is that I hope that you will entertain doing a review on Eastern Promises when it comes out. Great reviews, Frenchy.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:04 am
Thanks for the kind comments, my movie reviews are a bit scarce coz the reviews for the Rotterdam Film Festival kinda ruin it for me for the rest of the year
Cronenberg’s movies are not on my list of faves, although checking out imdb.com I’ve seen four of his movies, so there’s a certain interest.. I liked A History Of Violence, in a very disturbing way, it still in the back of my mind and that’s what I kinda like about his movies.
Saw the trailer for Eastern Promises and it’s Viggo all the way with an interesting storyline, wonder if he’ll pull it off.. Think I’ll be checking it out, no promises