Reel Rundown: Acting, production values of Truman Capote tale are impeccable in ‘Feud: Capote vs. The Swans’
In 1966, when Random House published Truman Capote’s true-crime study “In Cold Blood,” his reputation as a brilliant writer was assured.
Less than 20 years later, Capote would die a broken man, deserted by many of his high-society friends, his reputation in tatters – and all because of the same desire that won him fame in the first place: his talent for putting words on a page.
It’s not as if he’d been an unknown quantity previously. His work had been published in such magazines as the New Yorker, Harper’s Bazaar and Esquire. New York Times critic Orville Prescott even wrote of Capote’s 1948 novel “Other Voices, Other Rooms” that “it is impossible not to succumb to the potent magic of his writing.”
And, apparently, the pull of his outsized personality was just as powerful. In any event, that personality is what attracted a group of women who regularly graced the society pages of New York’s newspapers – women that included Barbara “Babe” Paley, C.Z. Guest and Lee Radziwill (sister of First Lady Jackie Kennedy).
But all that ended in 1975 when the story “La Cote Basque, 1965” appeared in Esquire. Ostensibly, the first chapter of the novel “Answered Prayers” that Capote claimed to be writing, it was a thinly veiled portrait of the women – whom Capote referred to as “the swans” – based on conversations that each had thought to be confidential.
Subsequently spurned by his “swans,” ostracized by much of the rest of New York society, a despondent Capote turned more and more to drugs and alcohol. His final years saw him evolve into a sadly comic version of himself, appearing on television – often drunk – and never finishing “Answered Prayers.”
That, at least, is the easy overview of Capote’s demise, though no one’s life can be summed up in such an abbreviated manner. It’s one, however, that along with his romantic relationships with a variety of men make up the bulk of “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans,” the anthology series that is streaming on Hulu.
This is the second season of “Feud,” the first season being a study of the conflict between movie stars Joan Crawford and Bette Davis during the filming of the 1962 film “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” That season, which also is streaming, is subtitled “Bette and Joan” and stars Jessica Lange as Crawford and Susan Sarandon as Davis.
Over eight episodes, each between 46 minutes and an hour long, Season 2 sees Capote (Tom Hollander) decide to publish his piece, the women (Naomi Watts as Paley, Chloe Sevigny as Guest, Calista Flockhart as Radziwill) react with horror, and Capote try – in vain – to win them all back.
With acclaimed director Gus Van Sant overseeing six of the episodes (Max Winkler and Jennifer Lynch directing the other two), the production values of “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans” are impeccable. Reactions to the overall storyline written by Jon Robin Baitz, on the other hand, are likely to depend on how entertained you are by what are mostly unlikable characters.
Moreover, the acting of the women, from Watts to more minor characters played by Demi Moore and Molly Ringwald, is above average at best. By contrast, the performance of the British actor Hollander is spot on. Of all the impersonations of Capote, including that of Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman in 2005’s “Capote,” Hollander’s stands out.
If only Capote himself had shown such discipline. And stamina.