Infamous | DVD Review

As I sat to watch Douglas McGrath’s INFAMOUS, I couldn’t help but wish I was doing anything other than sitting down to watch Douglas McGrath’s INFAMOUS. There was no chance I would enjoy it. It could not possibly embody the poise and restraint of Bennett Miller’s CAPOTE. The two share identical storylines, telling of the period where celebrated novelist, Truman Capote, researched and wrote his non-fiction revelation, In Cold Blood. CAPOTE just happened to beat INFAMOUS to the finish line, being released in theatres a year earlier and going on to score five Academy Award nominations, including picture, screenplay, director and actor, which Philip Seymour Hoffman went on to win. INFAMOUS was shelved and eventually dumped into a few theatres last fall, where it was not well received and did not stay long. INFAMOUS now hopes to find a new audience on DVD but CAPOTE is already there too.

It isn’t fair to criticize this movie in comparison to CAPOTE just because the latter came first but it is also impossibly ludicrous to ignore what one has already seen and been moved by. In the spirit of fairness, I gave the film a shot but INFAMOUS lost me within the first frames. Set against a colourful background, close-ups of different glasses are filled with alcohol, while a tacky cursive font announces the credits. It reeks of cheap cologne and flat champagne. There is a lady wearing a white tiger coat sitting up against a sofa with the same pattern. Waiters in tight pants walk past plastic palm tress. It looks like a senior’s club in Miami but it is meant to be an exclusive New York nightspot. And now, Gwyneth Paltrow is singing. Just when it seems nothing worse could happen, the band goes quiet and the patrons follow. Gwyneth is suddenly choked up and her heart breaks as she barely squeaks out the next verse, tears gently trickling. It is captivating but the hushed sympathy comes for someone we know nothing about and never see again. The film proceeds to endlessly juxtapose snotty socialites against a brutal murder. Every interaction is treated like a joke that wears very thin and very quickly. Truman Capote deserves class all the way and INFAMOUS is a bad knockoff of the movie that delivers just that.


The INFAMOUS DVD features only a theatrical trailer and a director commentary audio track. In what can only be a calculated decision, McGrath never mentions Miller’s CAPOTE. Instead, he discusses rather intellectually about the research and inspiration that went in to the writing of this film. He even leaves pauses between speaking that allow for the audio of the film to come back, acting at times as examples of what he was relating. McGrath is a composed speaker and he tells numerous anecdotes about the period and the person that did not make their way into the finished film but form Capote and some of his closer friends into more relatable and complete characters. His knowledge on the subject and manner of speech are both enlightening and engaging, making the commentary a pleasure to watch. He gives the film a perspective and weight that the film unfortunately does not achieve on its own. As stimulating as it is, it also saddens me to hear all this texture and nuance and know that it never managed to materialize in the screenplay or the film.

The tagline for INFAMOUS states, “There’s more to the story than you know.” Yes, there is. Only it isn’t found in McGrath’s overwrought film but rather in the multitude of layers found in that other Capote movie.

Movie rating – 1.5

Disc Rating – 3.5