Review: Infamous

UK release date: 19th January

Coincidentally made at the same time as the Oscar-winning Capote, this rival project also focuses on the events surrounding the writing of In Cold Blood — Truman Capote’s bestselling account of a shocking mass murder in a remote Kansas farmhouse in 1959.

Where Capote went for understatement, however, Infamous turns up the volume. It boasts a terrific performance from Toby Jones in the lead (one part Deputy Dawg, two parts Oscar Wilde) and punctuates the drama with stylised talking heads from the likes of author Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock) and society maven Babe Paley (Sigourney Weaver).

More bothersome, though, is the heavy-handed portrayal of Capote’s relationship with killer Perry Smith (Daniel Craig) and the foregrounding of the homoerotic tension that underscores his prison visits. If Capote didn’t exist this would be a fascinating failure, but next to it Infamous is mostly entertaining but somewhat superfluous.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 117mins

Review by Damon Wise

News: Sigourney Weaver

After this week’s outing in Infamous, Weaver will barely be off the big screen this year, with another four due out over the next 12 months, from the (apparently rather poor) attempt to do a Shrek by taking the piss out of fairy tales in the animated Happily N’Ever After to the rather more promising Vantage Point, a rashomon-style tale of an assassination attempt on the US President told from five different perspectives.

Along the way she’ll team up with Kate Bosworth for The Girl in the Park, with Weaver a woman whose daughter went missing while a toddler, who thinks Bosworth could well be her little girl – it could sound a bit like a remake of Vertigo from that, but other details are as yet unclear. There’s also The TV Set, a comedy based around the creation of a TV show pilot (which makes the title a truly unforgivable pun), co-starring David Duchovny and Ioan Gruffudd, before she tries her luck at another fairy tale-based animation next year, The Tale of Despereaux, alongside the voices of Robbie Coltrane, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Kline, Christopher Lloyd, William H Macy, Justin Long and Tracey Ullmann.

News: Dustin Hoffman

The veteran star may well have been taking smaller roles in recent years, as in this week’s supporting turn in Stranger Than Fiction, but looks all set to return to the leading parts which should be his by right – he’s even talked about his desire to do sequels to his early hits The Graduate and Tootsie – though to what extent he was joking remains somewhat unclear, as he’s also recently said that he’d like to be the next James Bond…

Next up is Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, based on the novel by Patrick Süskind. Set in 18th century France, the film follows a young man with an extraordinary sense of smell who, having apprenticed himself to Hoffman’s master perfume-maker, embarks on a killing-spree in pursuit of the ultimate scent. It is set for release on Boxing Day.

Due in July 2007, Hoffman will take the title role in the entertainingly-named Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium. As the 243-year-old owner of the world’s most wonderful toy store hands over his business to his nervous manager, played by Natalie Portman, there may well be a fair few Charlie and the Chocolate Factory parallels. But, directed as it is by the writer of the distinctly unusual Stranger Than Fiction, there’s bound to be more to it than that…

Then, in 2008, Hoffman will try his hand at animated comedy, providing voice duties on two big-budget, all-star cast extravaganzas featuring – as seems to be the rule with CGI films these days – a bunch of oddball talking animals. First will come Kung-Fu Panda, alongside Angelina Jolie, Jack Black, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu and Ian McShane, and then The Tale of Despereaux, from Corpse Bride co-director Mike Johnson, alongside Robbie Coltrane, Kevin Kline, Christopher Lloyd, William H Macy, Tracey Ullman, Sigourney Weaver and Justin Long.

Hardly much that could land him another Oscar for the shelf, but still – not bad.

News: Justin Long

Accepted‘s Justin Long – probably best known to date as Britney Spears’ boyfriend in the dire Crossroads or Linsay Lohan’s bloke in the not quite as awful Herbie: Fully Loaded – is a bit of a workaholic. Already completed is Idiocracy, for director Mike Judge (the creator of Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill), with Long in a relatively small role alongside Luke Wilson, who plays a bog-standard American frozen for 500 years, awaking to find himself the most intelligent person in the country, and Long is currently filming alongside Bruce Willis in Die Hard 4.

Long will also be taking the lead in Patriotville, as a lone guy fighting against his small town’s plan to build a casino on their historic battlefield, and voice the title character alongside in animated comedy The Tale of Despereaux forMike Johnson, co-director of Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride. Considering Long will be the lead alongside a voice cast that includes Robbie Coltrane, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver and William H Macy, it could yet prove to be the film that puts him firmly on the map. Shame we won’t see his face, really…