Pierre Peters is a resentful journalist, Katya is a successful actress. The event: an interview that spans one night, beginning at a pretentious restaurant before moving to the actress' monolithic loft down the road. Directed by Steve Buscemi, who also plays Peters, Interview is a recreation of the original film by the late Dutch filmmaker, Theo Van Gogh.
A recreation, though, that isn't entirely all it's cracked up to be. Steve Buscemi's portrayal of Pierre sees him jump from a concerned parental figure to a patronising political journalist determined to despise those who he feels are little more than superficial commercial waste. Unfortunately for Buscemi though, he seems to flounder and appears more like a dazed and confused victim of a bloody tragedy than a journalist who has lost his place and is in dire need of a career break.
Meanwhile Sienna Miller, playing the role of Katya who runs around her flat, by turns pursuing and rejecting the object of her attention seems rather like a schizophrenia sufferer with her over-playing of the secretly-intelligent-beauty-in-control before breaking down into little more than childlike tantrums and tears.
Admittedly this cat-and-mouse game is an intriguing idea. Caught in a situation where both have a lot to lose, the couple slip around each other's traps in order to score the next round without revealing anything about each other's individual lives.
Resorting to dubious stories and emotional blackmail Buscemi and Miller taunt each other until this convoluted web of fiction disguises any trace of personal truth and finally renders the interviewer nothing more than the caretaker of useless garble.
Two stars out of five
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