Annoyingly, I find myself without about as much to say about this movie as I could find to say about Capote, which I really must treat to a second viewing some time soon. The only thing that must be said is that, as many others have said, there is most definitely room in the world for both Infamous and the Philip Seymour Hoffman Oscar winner.

Toby Jones’ performance is every bit as great as Hoffman’s, if not better, but that’s not the draw of the movie for me. What amazes me is how two movies can be so similar, even more than expected, and yet so different. I think the fact that I loved Sandra Bullock’s Harper Lee more than Catherine Keener’s says it all. It’s easily Bullock’s best performance since 28 Days (okay, I know nobody loved that movie as much as I did – it’s her best performance ever, then). Also brilliant in supporting roles are Daniel Craig (the only part of the movie In Cold Blood I’ve seen is that classic shot of Robert Blake behind bars with the rain going across his face like tears, and Craig definitely seems to be channeling Blake’s performance here) and Sigourney Weaver.

It’s tempting to say “It’s a shame Capote came out first,” over this movie, but I guess the real shame is that people at large simply aren’t willing to overlook such an unfortunate coincidence, and Infamous will simply never get the recognition that Capote did. It doesn’t mean much since my memory of Capote is vague at best, but I definitely want to say I preferred this version of the story, or, to put it another way, yet again I’m siding with Lord Kermode on the matter. Though the movie enters the same dark territory as heavily as, if not more than, Capote, it has so much more light in it, and generally packs a heavier emotional punch.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 5th, 2007 at 1:32 am in 4 hearts, Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.