We all think we know everything about Truman Capote thanks to how many films and television shows revisit and recreate the famous (infamous?) author’s life. Though small in stature, Capote exuded enough charisma and nerve for innumerable lifetimes. What an honor it would be to have him take a bite out of you with his acidic wit. Feud: Capote vs. The Swans chronicles the last years of Capote’s life after he takes his friendships for granted and tarnishes almost all of the bonds that he shares with women perched on the highest branches of high society. Thanks to Tom Hollander’s enormously emotional performance, you will never see Truman Capote in the same way ever again.
When Capote publishes chapter of Answered Prayers in Esquire in 1975, he thinks he is pulling back a curtain just enough for rabid audiences to get a glimpse of the sophisticated life he leads. The names feel barely changed and the events are too close for comfort for everyone in his circle. The most hurt is Naomi Watts’ Babe Paley, Capote’s closest friend who immediately feels his absence when she swears off seeing him. She, along with Diane Lane’s Slim Keith and Calista Flockhart’s Lee Radziwell, sever ties with Capote while Chloë Sevigney’s C.Z. Guest adopts a slightly more forgiving approach. This season of Feud curiously posits whether misogyny existst in the relationships of gay men and straight women–how much of that do we let slide?
In the second episode, Capote says, “I’m not easy to love,” and his complicated past with his mother (surprise supporting performance…) comes to light in several sequences where he can barely look at her in the eye. This is a performance that goes beyond the storied mannerisms and Capote’s trademark lisping tone. Hollander delivers the complicated portrait of a man who could not help but perform and be his true self. How glorious Capote can be when he surrounded by the glamour and comfort of his beloved swans. How tragic it is to see that love fall away. When that love is snatched back, does it die? Does it retreat within ourselves? For those of us who have obsessed over this story, we know the outcome, but this series makes us believe something will change.
We may never have received Capote’s final novel, and Feud makes us wonder if he finished it, what else might have been destroyed. Maybe Capote was too afraid to write more, because Hollander’s performance reveals what’s truly at stake.
Feud: Capote vs. The Swans is streaming now on Hulu.
