Capote is the story of Truman Capote researching and writing the book that made him more famous than ever and left him a very changed man. Early in Capote, Truman is sitting at home reading the New York Times when he sees an article about the murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas. When he becomes fascinated by this story, he is a successful writer of short fiction and a popular figure in the literary world of New York.

He is so struck by the story of these murders that he convinces William Shawn, editor of the New Yorker, played in Capote by Bob Balaban, that this is his next story. The year is 1959. For the next six years, Truman Capote works to turn the story of a brutal and senseless crime into his most famous book, In Cold Blood. This pioneering work of non-fiction, dubbed a non-fiction novel, had an enormous influence on journalism. Capote shows us in sometimes excruciating detail the toll that writing In Cold Blood takes on him. It isn’t a pretty picture, but it is fascinating.

And it is quite an accomplishment that a very private internal process - a man researching and writing a book - is so engaging. This is especially true because Capote is often a prickly egotistical narcissist, not a particularly warm or sympathetic character. But when he isn’t completely consumed by his work, when he is his public self or his reporting self, we see the charm, wit, curiosity and intelligence that make him ideally suited to get people to tell him their stories.

Central to the success of Capote is the performance of Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote. Fans of Hoffman (and is there anyone who has ever seen him in anything that hasn’t enlisted as a fan) will not be surprised that he gives a convincing lived-in performance of this quite unusual man. Though I expected him to be great, I was still amazed and delighted by his performance. It isn’t just how quickly he is believable as Truman Capote, which he is - taking on Mr. Capote’s high pitched, slightly lisping voice, seeming to shrink into a smaller size complete with haughty bearing and affected gestures. Hoffman also convinces you that, despite these many eccentricities, it was impossible for him to be anything other than his highly unusual self and that he made people accept him as that self in spite of how very different he was than almost everyone in every situation.

I was ready to love Hoffman’s performance, and I did. The early buzz about Capote was that, aside from Hoffman’s performance, the movie wasn’t very engaging. My experience is just the opposite. Hoffman’s performance is supported in every way from every corner, and Capote is very engaging on all fronts.

Capote grows out of a very smart script written by Dan Futterman - his first. Futterman is better known as an actor, in many indie film roles and as the character Vincent in the television show “Judging Amy.” Capote shows us the early stages of reporting in which polite but persistent interviewing and questioning are needed. It shows us how, as the story progresses, Truman becomes involved in the fates of the two murderers. At first, he is somewhat seduced by the sad background of Perry Smith and tries to help the two men get a fair trial. The story deepens to show us how Truman goes too far and learns too much.

There comes a point when Truman the writer needs the story to end, so that he can finish his book, and if that means that two men must exhaust their appeals and hang, so be it. Even from the depths of his own self-interest, he realizes how morally compromised his need for the story is. In the end, he is unable to come to terms with the ending with which he is so inextricably linked. And he is painfully aware he has gone too far and invested too much. The scenes surrounding the hanging of Perry Smith are devastating.

Capote is directed by Bennett Miller, whose only previous directing credit is for an almost homemade documentary, The Cruise, a movie about a fascinating and unique subject, Timothy “Speed” Levitch. Miller makes both the cocktail parties in New York and the living rooms in Kansas feel like very real and very different places.

Capote makes powerful use of the friendship between Truman Capote and his childhood friend Nelle Harper Lee. Lee, played by the wonderful Catherine Keener, came to Kansas with Capote as his assistant and “bodyguard.” The two make a great tag team in Kansas, with Lee gaining entrance for Mr. Capote and Capote winning over the trust of various friends of the Clutters. The scenes in Kansas in the home of Sheriff Dewey (Chris Cooper) and his wife Marie (Amy Ryan) show off the charm of the two Southerners.

As Capote struggles to write “In Cold Blood” on screen, Lee writes “To Kill a Mockingbird” off screen. Capote’s declining ability to balance drinking, fame and writing his briliant but grim book so take over his life that at the premiere of the movie adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird he is so out of it all he can manage is not really understanding what “all the fuss” is about.

To Kill a Mockingbird, the movie, was my first exposure to Capote, though I didn’t know it at the time. Lee used her childhood friend as a character in the novel. “Folks call me Dil,” says the strange little boy hiding in the garden next door to Scout and Jem. “I’m little, but I’m old,” he boasts. Through Catherine Keener’s expressive eyes, we see her watch her childhood friend deteriorate during Capote. She’s as powerless to help him as he is to help himself.