Timing And Taste

I just saw Infamous. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I wouldn't be a bit surprised. It's a recently-released film based on the years Truman Capote wrote In Cold Blood.

Wait, you're saying, didn't that come out last year? No, that was Capote, an art house hit that won Philip Seymour Hoffman an Oscar in the title role. Apparently, that fulfilled America's appetite for this story, since Infamous flopped.

I think it's better than Capote. I thought Capote was trying too hard to win awards, while Infamous has a lighter, more entertaining tone--it gets the socialite side better without skimping on the drama. And when I watched Hoffman, I saw someone acting, but when I watched Toby Jones, I saw Truman Capote.

Some critics claim Infamous doesn't stick to the facts as closely as Capote. I don't care, these aren't documentaries. I have to wonder how things would have turned out if the films were released in the opposite order.

I'm reminded of the time when two films about long distance runner Steve Prefontaine were released--Prefontaine in 1997 and Without Limits in 1998. The latter version by Robert Towne was definitely superior, but in that case there wasn't a market for even one film on the subejct.