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'Capote' Plumbs a Legend

Film critic David Edelstein reviews Capote, the new film about writer Truman Capote and the research and writing of his breakthrough book, In Cold Blood.

Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman in the title role, Capote traces how the New York-based writer came to tell the story of a Holcomb, Kan., family murdered by two young men who were caught and eventually executed.

In Cold Blood took Capote six years to write. The book was a breakthrough for Capote's use of fiction techniques to write non-fiction.

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David Edelstein is a film critic for New York magazine and for NPR's Fresh Air, and an occasional commentator on film for CBS Sunday Morning. He has also written film criticism for the Village Voice, The New York Post, and Rolling Stone, and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times' Arts & Leisure section.