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Infamous
Warner Independent Pictures
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for language, violence and some sexuality
Starring
Toby Jones,
Sandra Bullock, Daniel Craig,
Sigourney Weaver,
Juliet Stevenson,
Gwyneth Paltrow,
Hope Davis,
Isabella Rossellini, Peter Bogdanovich,
and
Jeff Daniels
Infamous follows the dangerous quest for artistic greatness chosen by Truman Capote (Jones) as he travels to Kansas to investigate the brutal murder of the Clutter family, accompanied by lifelong friend and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Nelle Harper Lee (Bullock). (Warner Independent Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Douglas McGrath
George Plimpton (book Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Douglas McGrath
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: February 13, 2007
Theatrical: October 13, 2006
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
110 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
90
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Infamous gives you the unique opportunity to see how two sets of filmmakers can take exactly the same story, make extremely tough though different choices in emphasis and tone and achieve brilliant movies.
90
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
Less a parable of literary ethics than a showcase of literary personality, and it is in the end more touching than troubling.
90
The New Yorker
Anthony Lane
Jones gets everything--the gestures, the generosity, the mean streak, the bending of the ear to recitals of woe, whether across a lunch table or a prison cell. He even nails the voice, like that of a chorister caught running a racket with the incense.
88
New York Post
Kyle Smith
Dizzy with celebrity, New York society and gay life (if all that isn't the same thing), Infamous is more fun. But "Capote" is a better movie.
80
Empire
Will Lawrence
While less beguiling than "Capote," Infamous remains a soulful and searching portrayal of the writer, carried with immense charm and vivacity by its leading man.
80
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
Though it's not as good as the brilliant "Capote," it's nevertheless a riveting, well-made picture.
80
LA Weekly
Scott Foundas
Infamous is the better Capote film, yes, but also the less easily digestible one, the more eccentric one and -- yes -- the gayer one.
78
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
Infamous successfully captures a sense of the loneliness of a writer's life.
75
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
I don't know if that makes Infamous a better movie, but it's certainly as good and a lot more fun. British actor Toby Jones is so physically right in the role, you'll think Capote is playing himself.
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
Watch Infamous on its own. It's a worthy film in its own right, with its own virtues.
75
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Overall, McGrath's film has superior star power (including Gwyneth Paltrow in a one-scene role as a Peggy Lee-like chanteuse), is franker about the sexual nature of Capote's fascination with the murderous Smith and his sad, strangled dreams, and spends more time establishing Capote's glittering New York life before setting him adrift in the heartland.
75
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
The pleasure of Infamous is in its gallery of larger-than-life portrayals.
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
"Capote" is serious, deep and unadorned in the manner of the 1967 movie adaptation of the writer's true-crime novel "In Cold Blood." And Infamous boasts the high-gloss frivolity of the 1961 film version of Capote's "Breakfast at Tiffany's."
75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
"Capote" is the more intellectual of the two films; Infamous is the more emotional. They exist to complement, not eclipse, one another.
75
USA Today
Claudia Puig
It's a stellar cast, but you can't help but lament the bad timing.
75
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Tasha Robinson
Ultimately, the problem with Infamous isn't that it revisits Capote's turf--it's that it does the same things well, and leaves the same unsatisfying holes.
70
Variety
David Rooney
Writer-director Douglas McGrath's boldest stroke is to impose a more overtly gay interpretation on a central relationship in which the attraction was generally supposed to be unspoken.
70
Village Voice
Robert Wilonsky
It's just a lesser version, light in weight and absent the ache that permeated the movie for which Philip Seymour Hoffman won an Academy Award. It can't withstand the comparisons. It's good, especially during its first half, just not good enough.
70
New York Magazine
David Edelstein
Neither movie (Capote/Infamous) gives you the whole picture, but it's fun to see them both and rearrange the pieces in your head.
70
The New Republic
Stanley Kauffmann
McGrath says that he considers his film to be lighter in tone than TC 1, which is baffling. The reverse seems the case.
70
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
The film benefits from three splendid performances: Toby Jones as Capote, an aggressively gay elf exuding a tosspot charm; Sandra Bullock as Nelle Harper Lee, a novelist who uses spoken words with quiet precision, and Daniel Craig as Perry, a deluded monster who is nonetheless forthright and strong.
67
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
A garish and fascinating little movie that comes bouncing in the wake of Bennett Miller's "Capote" like a yipping puppy trying to keep up with an elegant show dog.
67
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
The added value that writer-director Douglas McGrath has in mind is gossip -- and a goggly interest in gossip becomes the glittering gimmick of Infamous.
67
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
Compared to "Capote," this new film is altogether lighter.
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
The only difference between the two films is that this one chronicles Capote's New York environment in more detail (and with humorous interludes), and it's a tad lighter in tone and perhaps a bit less high-horse condemning of its subject's literary ethics.
63
Premiere
Glenn Kenny
Understanding what McGrath is trying to pull off is not the same thing as McGrath pulling it off; as ambitious as it is, Infamous falters in execution too often to create a lasting impression.
63
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
Though stylistically all over the place, it's not without interest.
63
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
The film's most pleasing surprise is the beautifully nuanced portrait of Capote's confidante, "To Kill a Mockingbird" author Harper Lee, by Sandra Bullock. You heard me. Bullock gives the film what it otherwise lacks: the ring of truth.
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
Flashy, fun, shallow, easy-going and without a hope of brilliance.
50
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Infamous, which mines almost the exact same ground as "Capote," comes up 300 days late and artistically close to bankruptcy.
50
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
McGrath makes literal what the other movie only hinted at -- that Perry falls in love with Capote -- turning the relationship between author and subject into something far less complicated and more mundane.
50
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Infamous has dramaturgical strengths, whether or not it gets the facts right. Jones's performance as Capote tends to be delivered in a monotone, yet thanks to Craig all of their scenes together are potently realized.
50
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
It bears roughly the same resemblance to the Bennett Miller-Dan Futterman-Philip Seymour Hoffman masterpiece as the now-forgotten "Valmont" did to "Dangerous Liaisons."
50
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
The problem is that the first half of Infamous is nowhere near as comic as McGrath intends. Instead the picture gives off a tone of arch stylization that plays as artificial, overwrought and off-putting.
 The average user rating for this movie is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 33 User Votes
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