...and especially disastrous if you've read the story already.
Everyone who sees the name "Truman Capote" is already braced for impact, so to say, that something strange and/or awful is going to happen, and probably to the boy in the stories. With that in mind, why is it so impossible for anyone to make a movie - whether of a Capote work or not - that stays true enough to the story to not offend the viewers/readers? As for the actors, I was ready to strangle Miss Amy right after "meeting" her. Zoo, Randolph, and the rest were OK. Speck as Joel was watchable, almost appearing as if he were waiting for his chance to act - and never got it. What he did get, as far as script and direction, obviously, he did well with. One can only imagine the scenes so carefully avoided, and how he could have done those. And what of the relationship with Randolph and Joel? I kept waiting for the obvious to be stated - that he wanted the boy there not only to atone for what he had done wrong...but probably to do MORE wrong things.
That never happened.
Children get molested every day. A lot of the viewers were probably molested as children. A lot of us were, no doubt, put through worse when we were Capote's age in this tale. The film makers would not have had to have a full blown-nude-rape scene; they could have "filmed around that" and still had the carnival and Miss Wisteria, and strongly implied that she was after him.
Also, the timeline of Capote's recollections is confusing, when compared to "A Christmas MEMORY, THE THANKSGIVING VISITOR, and ONE Christmas." By this age, the boy should have been in a military school already. However, it could be a stretch in the semi-autobiographical sense, and I simply misinterpret.
But with an episode like this in his life, is it any wonder that he turned out the way he did? The closest thing I can compare this film to in the area of mangling a book by turning it into a movie is to compare it to Spielber's "AI" with Haley Joel Osment as a robot boy. I'm sure both Stanley Kubrick and Truman Capote went spinning in their graves after these films were made.
My only advice - watch the film, re-read the story, and use that to create your own film in your head.
Everyone who sees the name "Truman Capote" is already braced for impact, so to say, that something strange and/or awful is going to happen, and probably to the boy in the stories. With that in mind, why is it so impossible for anyone to make a movie - whether of a Capote work or not - that stays true enough to the story to not offend the viewers/readers? As for the actors, I was ready to strangle Miss Amy right after "meeting" her. Zoo, Randolph, and the rest were OK. Speck as Joel was watchable, almost appearing as if he were waiting for his chance to act - and never got it. What he did get, as far as script and direction, obviously, he did well with. One can only imagine the scenes so carefully avoided, and how he could have done those. And what of the relationship with Randolph and Joel? I kept waiting for the obvious to be stated - that he wanted the boy there not only to atone for what he had done wrong...but probably to do MORE wrong things.
That never happened.
Children get molested every day. A lot of the viewers were probably molested as children. A lot of us were, no doubt, put through worse when we were Capote's age in this tale. The film makers would not have had to have a full blown-nude-rape scene; they could have "filmed around that" and still had the carnival and Miss Wisteria, and strongly implied that she was after him.
Also, the timeline of Capote's recollections is confusing, when compared to "A Christmas MEMORY, THE THANKSGIVING VISITOR, and ONE Christmas." By this age, the boy should have been in a military school already. However, it could be a stretch in the semi-autobiographical sense, and I simply misinterpret.
But with an episode like this in his life, is it any wonder that he turned out the way he did? The closest thing I can compare this film to in the area of mangling a book by turning it into a movie is to compare it to Spielber's "AI" with Haley Joel Osment as a robot boy. I'm sure both Stanley Kubrick and Truman Capote went spinning in their graves after these films were made.
My only advice - watch the film, re-read the story, and use that to create your own film in your head.