It is a cost effective biographic movie, shot in 36 days, of an American homosexual fiction writer, Truman Garcia Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman), on his compilation of the then famed book, "In Cold Blood", in the early 1960s. The film carries a theme of the writer's role conflict in compiling a non-fiction novel based on a family murder and highlights the dilemma between sympathy and fact reporting as well as the investigator's progressive indulging in the subject characters. The film's core (but very implicit) message explores the degree of journalists' positional orientation in investigative journalism. It is slow pacing and probably boring for audience without knowledge or interest in the world of American novels or related journalistic subjects in the 1950-60s. If the movie is not Academy winning, it is difficult to attract a bunch of audience in Hong Kong with such an alienated topic.

Hoffman stages impressively and excellently in simulating the stereotyped mannerism and lisp of Capote and deserves the Academy Award though the staging of such an appearance and overt mannerism in body gesture and vocal aspects are by no means difficult. In rhetorical terms, the film emphasizes Capote's enthusiasm in fiction writing and innovative exploration on blending novel writing with journalism (i.e., inquisitive journalism) but downplays Capote's eccentric sexual orientation by omitting the romance with his gay partners.

Aesthetic wise, director Bennet Miller uses minimal camera movement and many establishment shots are directly cut into close-ups of the characters throughout the film. It is also relatively meek in continuity in editing with decoupage commonly made fairly elliptical among shots within the same sequence. Miller adds languid music to the grey mise-en-scenes as well and escalates the mood of the audience at the denouement by (1) using a flashback on the actual murder under fast editing and (2) bringing the capital punishment on Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.) into mise-en-scene. It so happens that both the actor (Hoffman as Capote) and actress (Reese Witherspoon as June Carter, singer, in "Walk the Line" (Dir: James Mangold, 2005)) in a leading role of the Academy Award 2006 are performing roles that captivate on verbal/vocal features and body gesture.