With a drink at hand and his head tilted upwards,the English actor Tom Hollander (Pirates of the Caribbean,The White Lotus) portrays Capote as a rapscallion mother hen,dispensing gossip and advice to the patrician queens of 1960s and 1970s New York society. “There’s a Gaugin,” he tells Babe Paley (Naomi Watts),suggesting a lavish purchase as the price her husband,Bill (Treat Williams),should pay for his latest infidelity. Capote’s “swans” – Babe,C Z Guest (Chloe Sevigny) and Slim Keith (Diane Lane) – are his platonic loves.
Created by playwright and screenwriter Jon Robin Baitz (Brothers&Sisters),with most episodes astutely directed by filmmaker Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting,Milk),the narrative is galvanised by Capote rupturing that bond in 1975,when he used the lives of his confidantes as barely fictionalised material for a prominent book excerpt. Whether it’s due to creative laziness or parasitic need,the roman a clef is seen as an attack and they boycott their closest companion.
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The show dedicates significant focus to the women,attempting to render their entitled lives complicated. “They have to paddle twice as fast,” Truman says of his swans,and Watts in particular gives a fine performance as a woman stretched taut,physically and emotionally,by her station. The era’s standards are referenced with contemporary hindsight,such as the women debating whether Truman was a gay misogynist. There are more jetsetters,less Hollywood cameos,although Truman does get dissed by an unnamed Peter Sellers.
With capacious instincts,thisFeud tends to weigh up the contradictions rather than rule on them. With Hollander impressively distinguishing his take from Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Academy Award-winning performance in 2005’sCapote,Truman can be vicious to a former swan,Ann Woodward (Demi Moore),but also the victim of domestic violence from his lover,John O’Shea (Russell Tovey). You never get a sense of his breakthrough artistry or iconoclastic youth,but Capote’s failings and frustrations make for a capable and bittersweet road-to-ruin portrait.
Jacqueline Novak:Get on Your Knees ★★★★
Netflix