22 May 2007

Infamous

Director: Douglas McGrath

Starring: Toby Jones, Sigourney Weaver, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael Panes, Sandra Bullock, Hope Davis

Awards: ALFS Award British Actor of the Year, London Critics Circle Film Awards

Release: 2007-05-22

Last year, Philip Seymour Hoffman won the hearts of thousands of Oscar voters and millions of LGBT moviegoers with his extraordinary portrayal of famous American gay writer Truman Capote in Capote. Well, it seems that one film about the effeminate and enormously talented writer isn't enough. Hollywood has now released another film titled Infamous, which also traces the period in the late 1950s and 1960s during which Capote wrote the novel In Cold Blood.

Whereas last year's film Capote was a dark and intimate drama, this year's Infamous is a far more populous and sophisticated biopic. It gives a richer and fuller account of how Capote was inspired by the savage 1959 murder of a family to pen his novel In Cold Blood, which catapulted him to the heights of fame.

The film depicts the six long years Capote took to write the book, during which his state of mind became severely affected. The film sheds light on Capote's painful artistic struggles, making it a must-see for any LGBT in the arts industry. The strong supporting cast — Sandra Bullock as Harper Lee, Daniel Craig (James Bond) as the convicted murderer and Sigourney Weaver as socialite Babe Paley, among others — certainly gives more reasons to catch this.