Bennett Miller is good at letting ambitious people win our sympathy without excusing their behaviour. Capote makes a strong case for his patient, actor-led cinema, though we wanted more of the writer’s work and less scrutiny of his failings.
Fi1m perspective
In Capote (2005), Catherine Keener’s Harper Lee gives us a rest from listening to Philip Seymour Hoffman’s writer. Her reserve lets us consider the man who has been doing the talking, and Miller allows that quieter performance to hold our attention. We felt uncomfortable watching Capote win people’s trust, because Miller makes his company appealing even as he shows us how he uses them. The film earns our admiration by making those relationships absorbing, even when we would like a closer look at the book they serve.
Miller began with The Cruise (1998), a documentary about a New York tour guide, before making his first fiction feature with Capote. He followed it with Moneyball (2011), drawn from a non-fiction book about baseball analytics, and the controlled scrutiny of Foxcatcher (2014). Across his films, outsiders try to find a place in worlds that do not readily accommodate them. Miller’s unfussy images and editing give us room to notice what they leave unsaid; he does not hurry to supply an explanation for everything they do.
The most useful collaborator to consider in Capote is screenwriter Dan Futterman, who concentrates on the relationships behind In Cold Blood rather than a whole life. That choice gives Miller a manageable story and Hoffman people to persuade, rather than biographical milestones to reach. Clifton Collins Jr.’s vulnerability as Perry Smith matters as much to the balance as Keener’s reserve: both keep other people’s needs in view. Hoffman can dominate our attention, but Miller makes sure the film has space for the people Capote would prefer to treat as supporting characters.
The limit is how often Futterman returns to the writer’s selfishness without deepening our understanding of it. We learn more about how Capote persuades than how he writes, and eventually the film makes disapproval a little too easy. That is a frustration with an otherwise absorbing drama, not a reason to wish Miller had attempted a cradle-to-grave account. Start with Capote, and pay as much attention to Keener and Collins as to the man doing most of the talking.
Biography
Bennett Miller (born 30 December 1966) is an American film director. Born in New York City, he attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts but left before graduating. He began his career with the documentary The Cruise (1998), which he also produced and wrote.
Miller is known for directing the films Capote (2005), Moneyball (2011) and Foxcatcher (2014). He received Academy Award nominations for Best Director for Capote and Foxcatcher. He has directed six performers to Academy Award nominations, including Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won for his performance in Capote.
