Interview (5/10)
by Tony Medley
I admit it. One of the
reasons I give this better than a totally negative rating is because of
the beauty of Sienna Miller, who can also act, thank you. She’s part of
an unlikely teaming with Steve Buscemi (the “funny-looking guy” from
1996’s Fargo), who also directed.
This is an homage, part of
a trilogy of remakes of films by Theo van Gogh, the great-grandnephew of
Vincent van Gogh, who was brutally executed by an Islamic jihadist in
2004. The trilogy, of which this is the first, is called “Triple Theo.”
This is a two-person film
in which journalist Pierre Peders (Buscemi) is assigned to interview pop
diva, TV and movie star Katya (Miller). He claims to be a “serious
journalist,” one who has covered wars and Washington. As such, he views
himself as being above such fluff. Katya, on the other hand, is living a
relatively self-destructive life of celebrity, booze, cigarettes, and
drugs.
At the beginning I didn’t
buy the dialogue. It’s pretty forced and contrived and I squirmed a lot
during the first 45 minutes. As the film descends into darker territory,
it gets more interesting and the last half hour of this 86-minute film
is pretty good. The film against which all these two-people conversation
movies is to be compared is My Dinner with Andre (1981), to which
Interview, unfortunately, doesn’t hold a candle.
It’s also diminished by
another of those derivative scenes in which there is instant,
unexplained passion. They are talking with one another, then they kiss
and without time for a blink, they are breathing passionately, attacking
one another. I don’t know if van Gogh had a ridiculous scene like this
in his original, but I imagine this is a Hollywood addition, because
it’s pure Hollywood and pure poppycock.
Interview is filmed
in the style of van Gogh using his crew. Led by Director of Photography
Thomas Kist, van Gogh developed and perfected a fast-paced, forceful
method of using three digital cameras running at all takes, with one
camera trained on each character in these two-person dramas and one
camera capturing middle and master shots.
There’s really no plot
here. This is just two people who probe the depths of their psyches
during an evening’s interview. What starts out as kidding and flirting
slowly descends into a dark drama, a commentary on truth, ethics, and
just how much one can trust a journalist.
There is some product
placement. Apple, for instance, is clearly displayed as Katya’s
computer. Another reprehensible part of the film is that both Katya and
Pierre smoke. Whenever I see these dopey movie stars smoke in their
films (Jon Travolta used to insist on smoking scenes), my eyes and lungs
both start to bother me. Kudos to the MPAA for making smoking one of the
things that can cause a film to get a more restrictive rating.
Since this unconvincing,
contrived imitation only runs less
than an hour and a half, Sienna Miller's stunning beauty and the last
half almost make it worth
seeing.
|