Capote (2005)

A truly controversial film about death, imprisonment, homosexuality, and whether a crime is worth a mans life. When watching Bennett Miller's 'Capote', a biopic drama about 1950/60's writer Truman Capote, I didn't find it the most gripping of films, and it was one I feel could have been at least half an hour shorter due to it's slow pace making it not the easiest of films to digest. Nevertheless what it was able to do was show me what a great actor Philip Seymour-Hoffman was and how versatile he could be. And looking at the other Oscar nominations from 2005 it was a well deserved win by the late actor. It's maybe not the best film that Philip Seymour Hoffman has been in, his best probably being 'Punch, Drunk, Love' due to his brilliant chemistry between him and Adam Sandler and the way he can pull off such a brilliant villain in 'Mission Impossible: III'. However what's got to be said about 'Capote' is how Hoffman was able to perform such a different role to 'Capote' has a very similar feel to films like 'Dead Man Walking' with Sean Penn and Sigourney Weaver due to the way it focuses on the impact of being on death row. It's one of those films that portrays the message really well that, no matter the crime, should should we really end the criminals life? It's fair to say it's certainly a hard hitting film, not just because of the subject, but also because it's such a loss loosing this actor. I suppose the best way to put it is that, it's not Philip Seymour-Hoffman's best film but it could very much be his best role as we can see how diverse the actor was. You'll be deeply missed Philip.