Wall Street Journal
by Joe Morgenstern
October 13, 2006
"Infamous" covers much of the same territory as last year's "Capote," but with a different sensibility, and a less sophisticated one, even though the new film strains for a kind of café-society sophistication that was mercifully absent from its predecessor. The difference starts with the source material. "Capote" was based on a fundamentally serious, extensively researched biography. Douglas McGrath, who wrote and directed "Infamous," adapted his script from a George Plimpton book full of illuminating but often gossipy interviews. Mr. McGrath has emphasized the gossip quotient by using an intrusive device with a heavy hand: straight-to-the-camera interviews in which socialites and celebrities, played archly by actors, talk about the Capote they knew.
What's more, "Infamous" depicts quite shamelessly, with no factual basis, the relationship between Capote and the convicted killer Perry Smith as a flat-out, sex-in-prison, kissing-on-the-lips love affair, and Capote as, ultimately, a contemptible worm. Still, the film benefits from three splendid performances: Toby Jones as Capote, an aggressively gay elf exuding a tosspot charm; Sandra Bullock as Nelle Harper Lee, a novelist who uses spoken words with quiet precision, and Daniel Craig as Perry, a deluded monster who is nonetheless forthright and strong. Mr. Craig will soon be seen, of course, as the debonair James Bond in "Casino Royale." Now, that's sophistication.
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