Interview, He Said

Let me start by saying that I'm a huge fan of Steve Buscemi. As and actor, he is fully capable of completing scenes in support or carrying a movie in the lead role. If you think you've seen him in a film you probably have, as his resume goes on for pages. He is a actor, writer, director and producer of excellent quality and breadth. Yes, he goes for the quirky and off beat, but he does it well.

What I don't understand is Interview, his latest film, in which he wrote, directed, and stared in. He and the talented and beautiful Sienna Miller are on screen for well over 90% of the time this film runs. He is playing the washed up political writer who has phonied his sources and taken far to many ethical shortcuts to merit the big stories anymore. Now he's reduced to doing celebrity pieces and "fluffy" ones at that. He obviously considers his assignment to interview a popular soap opera star as beneath him and it show in his approach to the actress, played by Miller. She correctly interprets his clumsy questions and lack of preparation as an insult to her and a waste of her time.

Events, as improbable as they are, conspire to bring him to her apartment and here the drama takes on a dark caste. His questions and probing take a personal and acerbic quality. She responds by trying distract him with every ruse in the book from seduction to tempting him with drugs. (I'm telling you I almost got sick watching them consume massive amountof drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.)

His probing and prying seems to get him damming information on her, but it needs fleshing out and admission. In his attempt to get her to confess to the condition of her life, he agrees to come clean with her on how his life is screwed up. The whole tale turns on the ending which isn't entirely predictable. The lesson taught might be that you have to know when and actress is acting or maybe you shouldn't be judging the quality of an actress. In addition, A Faustian deal with the devil will mean you're going to spend time in hell.

All in all this film is very uneven and not very entertaining. Buscemi's script gives us the ups and downs, oft times with no set up or warning. Motivation for the actions of these two are left to the most vivid imagination, which makes you wonder if your watching a social exchange or a stuck in shrinks office watch toschizophrenics exchanging personalities.