Casting Call

This weekend Graham and I went and saw the movie Capote, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote. It isn’t so much about Truman Capote, as it’s about the writing of his most famous and celebrated work, In Cold Blood. It was one of the best movies I’ve seen in awhile—especially out of Hollywood. I’d like to just give it up to Philip Seymour Hoffman. Granted not all his movies have been great, but when have we ever said, “Well, he phoned it in on that one”? He RULES. He’s the MAN.

I have to admit that upon hearing that Hoffman was playing Capote, I was thrilled. Physically it wasn’t going to be a far stretch and he has kept the goods coming for ten years on film. If anyone could do it, he could. Usually, I HATE the casting they do for famous people. Don’t get me started on Gwenyth Paltrow as Sylvia Plath (couldn’t they have at least given her brown contacts, so she looked a LITTLE like Plath?). My latest stomach ache was brought on by finding out that Nicole Kidman is playing the photographer Diane Arbus—that ain’t a good match, folks. Diane Arbus was a dark, Jewish girl from New York. Kidman is as WASP-y as they come—her skin is so pale it’s nearly translucent. Then again she DID win me over as Virginia Woolf, but I still maintain that the prosthetic nose she wore should have gotten a nomination for best supporting role—because it really helped TRANFORM her in front of our very eyes.

The moment of real relief and delight for me was that Catherine Keener was SO GREAT as Harper Lee. Going in, I wasn’t sold on that casting call. Don’t get me wrong—I love the Catherine, the Keener. She does neurotic-sexy better than anyone. She is razor sharp in her nuttiness. She was lovely and amazing in Lovely and Amazing. Has anyone seen Kicking and Screaming? You will leave the theater kicking and screaming! I just couldn’t see her as a boyish, understated, Southern woman. Yet, she was SO GOOD! I believed her! She looks different, taller, more grounded than zany. I would say that Keener played this role with gravity and poise.

All this, and the aesthetic of the 1950’s done Hollywood style, which I absolutely ADORE. If I could, I would take a vacation in the 1950’s or 1940’s. Politically and socially, not the greatest time period, but aesthetically, it is Heaven to me! I would go shopping! I would travel! I would look up people who are now long gone and say, “What’s for dinner?”

So, regardless of a few factual inaccuracies, Capote is an hour and a half well spent. I left the theater inspired and wanting to read everything Capote ever wrote. Graham and I are both convinced that Hoffman will get an Oscar for his performance. Unless, of course, Tom Hanks comes out with an epic film about Jimmy Stewart, or Walt Disney himself. Then we’re SCREWED. I haven’t heard anything, so maybe it’s all good.