Infamous is over
An okay-whatever N.Y. Times piece by Ginia Bellafante on Douglas McGrath's Infamous, which opened and closed this weekend. Warner Independent sealed the fate of Infamous last year when it made the decision not to open it last fall against Bennett Miller's Capote, which would have been a kind-of event -- no one would have been able to see just one. That would have been the only chance it had.
As it happened, people had no interest in seeing a second Truman Capote-writes-In Cold Blood film a year later, especially when the word began to get around that it had problems.
My opinion after seeing Infamous before the Toronto Film Festival was that it wasn't nearly as rich and resonant as Miller and Dan Futterman's Capote pic. David Thomson's early-bird review, in which he called it close to miraculous and superior to Capote, was absolutely bizarre -- and I think Thomson is brilliant. It's obvious that Toby Jones looks more like the real Truman Capote than Philip Seymour Hoffman, but Philly is a much better actor. There are some major wrongos in the Infamous depiction of the Clutter murders. I don't believe Capote dressed himself as a road-company cowboy in order to ingratiate himself with the Holcomb locals, as he does in McGrath's film. I didn't buy Daniel Craig (and the black dye he used on his hair and eyebrows) as Perry Smith for a second, and I don't believe any of the physical stuff between Smith and Capote in McGrath's film (including the kiss) actually happened.
If I were a Warner Independent distribution exec, I would gone out and taken a long walk after reading those Saturday morning numbers.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on October 15, 2006 at 6:11 PM
comment #1
Doug
says ...
You don't buy Daniel Craig as Perry Smith and I don't buy him as James Bond. I'll skip both "Infamous" and "Casino Royale."
Posted by Doug
at October 15, 2006 10:00 PM
comment #2
Dixon Steele
says ...
It may be second guessing, but you wonder if Warner Independent made a mistake by not "platforming" Infamous and opened too wide with it.
Reviews and media were strong and if it had opened in a handful of screens rather than 179, it may not be DOA as it is now.
In the end, it may not have mattered, but as it is now, the picture is an outright flop and has nowhere to go.
It's not quite as good as Capote, but is definitely worth seeing. Too bad.
Posted by Dixon Steele
at October 16, 2006 2:13 AM
comment #3
Burbanked
says ...
I don't know if these were used in other cities around the US, but my local paper's movie ads for INFAMOUS utilized the tagline "You don't know the entire story" or something along those lines.
So in other words, "we know you've already seen this movie and we know how pathetic we are in releasing it now, but please please please come see it anyway 'cause it's good on its own merits and you'll like it...maybe?"
Desperation marketing - always a great investment.
Posted by Burbanked
at October 16, 2006 4:33 AM
comment #4
le corbeau
says ...
I think they should have made another movie about Steve Prefontaine instead.
At least people wanted to see ONE movie about Capote....
Posted by le corbeau
at October 16, 2006 5:33 AM
comment #5
TheLongshot
says ...
Hey, I wanted to see a movie about Steve Prefontaine. (And the second movie ended up being the better of the two.)
Funny, but the AICN crew seems to disagree with Wells on this one. Course, it doesn't matter, since the second movie doesn't usually get the fair shake.
Posted by TheLongshot
at October 16, 2006 7:18 AM
comment #6
le corbeau
says ...
Infamous was probably hurt (in the sense of being rendered redundant) by the success of The Devil Wears Prada as much as by Capote, if you think about it.
Posted by le corbeau
at October 16, 2006 8:25 AM
comment #7
Dixon Steele
says ...
What did the success of PRADA have to do with the Capote/Infamous situation at all? Talk about a reach...
Infamous is good, but not as consistant as Capote. In fact, it's almost two movies, the first half light & almost frothy, the second half really darker.
But Jones and Craig are both great, especially since they're Anglos playing Americans. Jones monologue about... SPOILER ALERT...his mother's suicide is brilliant as is Craig's character work in the third act. Outstanding stuff.
But too much sense of Deja Vu, obviously.
Posted by Dixon Steele
at October 16, 2006 9:33 PM