Philip Seymour Hoffman delivers his best performance to date, in part thanks to Dan Futterman’s carefully-observed script which captures Capote’s dual nature as lonely artist and society butterfly. Ambiguous and evenhanded, the film doesn’t celebrate Capote’s life so much as it explores, in terms somehow both highly unique to Capote and yet generally applicable, the depth of a writer’s absorption in his subject. Clifton Collins, Jr. is an able foil as Perry Smith, the convicted killer whom Capote befriends—or exploits?