Interview (2007)

Brief: Political reporter Pierre Peders (Steve Buscemi) gets assigned a "personality profile" of starlet Katya (Sienna Miller). His disdain when they meet at the restaurant causes her to bolt, but a subsequent car accident brings Pierre up to Katya's loft where the real interview begins.

And by real interview, I mean night-long psychological warfare.

It's fitting that I have the TV on in the background while I write this review instead of spending the first ten minutes or so struggling vainly to find the right music. This movie is pretty much all talk between the two leads, and, while I can like that in a movie, I thought I'd warn you.

Buscemi also directed and co-scripted this English adaptation of slain Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh's original, and, while I found it every bit as beautifully directed as the only other Buscemi feature I have seen, I got hung up on a certain point and couldn't really get past it. I'm reluctant to tell you about it, in fact, because I don't want to bias the movie for you, but, hey, that's the whole point of a review, right? If you don't want to know, leave now because I am going to say it.

Everything that I read before I saw this movie made, well I wouldn't say a big deal, but made a point of mentioning that there is a clear winner and a clear loser by the end. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is open to interpretation. Just knowing that spoiled the movie for me. I went looking for clues and with every one I made a guess. And I kept on guessing right to the point that nothing about it was all that surprising for me. Yes, there were little surprises along the way, surprises about how we were going to get from A to Z, but knowing Z too soon robs the movie of a lot of its dramatic tension. And the fact that there is a known Z, well, that doesn't help either.

The real surprise, in fact, was Miller. Known to me as nothing so much than the perpetrator of many a crime against fashion, Miller is nothing short of a revelation here. Always acting, always maneuvering, always watching for her next opening, her Katya is as sleek as a cat and as dangerous as a lioness. It's a thrill waiting to see what Katya'll come up with next.

Clear winner or no, it is entertaining to watch Pierre and Katya circle one another. Too bad it couldn't have been more. B+