Wrestling With the Dirt

By GATES, Charlie

INTERVIEW (M) Directed by Steve Buscemi * * * Reviewed by Charlie Gates

Interview wrestles with weighty and knotty ideas, but never quite pins them down for the count. Lead actor, writer and director Steve Buscemi lacks the courage to turn this intriguing and absorbing two- hander into something truly audacious.

Pierre Peders (Buscemi) is a washed-up and weaselly political journalist assigned to interview celebrity actress Katya (Sienna Miller), described by Peders as “more famous for who she sleeps with than anything else”.

The interview moves from a restaurant to the actress’s cavernous loft apartment and soon veers into uncharted territory as the two descend into a complex web of deceit.

Buscemi is best known as an actor for his ferret-faced performances in everything from offbeat Coen brothers movies to blockbusters like Con Air and Armageddon. He has also had moderate success as a director, most notably with a 1990s oddity about slacker barflies called Trees Lounge and a couple of cracking episodes of The Sopranos TV series.

This is a remake of a 2003 film directed by Dutch firebrand Theo van Gogh, who was shot dead in 2004 by a radical Islamist.

Buscemi’s reverence for van Gogh is shown in various references to the late director. A truck has van Gogh Removals emblazoned on the side and his photo is briefly glimpsed in Katya’s warehouse apartment.

Buscemi is faced with a difficult task as director to sustain the interest and tension with just two main characters and a single major location, but acquits himself well.

The hand-held lo-fi camerawork creates an intimate and confessional tone and there are some ambitious sequences that pay off.

Miller’s performance is also engaging, although she is cast to type as a celebrity actress in the media spotlight. She pulls off the unfolding Russian doll revelations and icy detachment with a certain efficiency.

Buscemi’s direction feels assured and confident in the absorbing and witty opening third — exploring ideas of celebrity, sexual politics and identity — but he later loses his way and at times slips into something more shambling.

The main problem lies in the pace. A tighter grip on the central thrust of the plot would have made for a tauter movie.

For a plot that relies on carefully timed revelations, there are long stretches of straight road before some of the twists.

The film is similar to Hard Candy, which starred Ellen Page of Juno fame in an early role, but lacks that movie’s visceral sense of style and unblinking aim for the jugular.

Interview is an intriguing and entertaining film, but lacks the killer instinct to truly dish the dirt before deadline.

(c) 2008 Press, The; Christchurch, New Zealand. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.