Movie Trailer Review: Infamous (2006)
To see the trailer for yourself, go here: http://www.apple.com/trailers/warner_independent_pictures/infamous/trailer/
I went out to a movie tonight, and this preview made me HAVE to bring back the movie trailer review that I know you've all been missing. The celebration starts now!
I'd heard that this movie was coming out, and I couldn't believe it. For those of you who haven't heard, Infamous is a biopic starring Toby Jones as Truman Capote, detailing his writing of his classic novel In Cold Blood. You may be thinking "I think you mean Capote is a biopic starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote, detailing his writing of his classic novel In Cold Blood". Unbelievable as it may be, someone went ahead and made this movie a second time!
Look, I get that there was probably something screwy happening, like coinciding production schedules or something. But guess what guys? You lost. The other movie came out, was nominated for some Oscars and won Hoffman the Best Actor award (deservedly so). I don't care if your movie is great, hell, I suppose it's possible that your movie is even better. But I can't see many people who are looking to see the same movie as portrayed by different actors just one year later. In some ways, it's a little surprising that ONE movie was made about the writing of In Cold Blood, but two? Insane.
What I like is that this movie cost about twice as much to make as the last one, possibly because of the presence of more name actors (not including Toby Jones, most famous for being Dobby the House Elf, others in the movie are Sandra Bullock, Daniel Craig, Sigourney Weaver, Isabella Rossellini, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jeff Daniels). The thing is, the first movie, which had an Oscar push behind it, only made about twice as much as it cost Infamous to make, so it's not like there was huge profits to be made by chasing the same material. You have to imagine there will be significant diminished returns on the second movie, as people who already saw Capote won't have much desire to see another version of it (especially so soon), and those who didn't see it probably weren't interested in the subject matter to begin with.
Honestly, I can't believe this is being released to theatres (albeit a probable small theatrical release by Warner Independent Pictures). If production was too far along to give up once it became clear that the Hoffman movie was going to beat them out, then they should've shelved it for awhile, then snuck it out unto DVD sometime, hoping to get it on cable TV or something. To spend any money for a theatrical release seems like a huge waste of time. If they were only halfway through production when news of the other movie came out, they should've tried to change the focus of the movie, like making it about Harper Lee's writing of To Kill a Mockingbird or something.
As for the trailer, Toby Hall looks pretty creepy as Capote (which may or may not be more accurate, I don't know), Sandra Bullock looks like a poor man's Catherine Keener (who played Harper Lee in Capote), struggling mightily with the accent she's attempting. The big highlight of the trailer is the reveal of Paltrow, who gives a stunningly tone deaf performance as a lounge singer. But the biggest thing I took from the trailer was how much it looked exactly like Capote, almost as though they were using the same sets and the same blocking. It almost offended me, since I really liked Capote.
The Verdict: When I get the urge to watch Capote again (probably sometime after I finish reading In Cold Blood), I'll just go buy the DVD. I can't think of any reason for the existence of Infamous. Can you?