Two interviewers in search of a subject. That's the best way to describe this natural-feeling yet sometimes artificial two-person show.
Ask any journalist for a good story, and some of the best will involve celebrity interviews. Not often, but sometimes it's possible to connect in a very special way with someone who's used to having mostly superficial human interaction and receiving more adulation than probably anyone deserves. Treat a celebrity like a regular person, and all sorts of interesting things can happen.
That's the premise behind "Interview," which is a remake of Dutch director Theo Van Gogh's 2003 film by the same name. But there's a more touching story behind it all. Van Gogh had planned on remaking three of his films in English and setting them in New York City, but he was murdered in 2004 before he could see his dream realized. And so long-time partners Gijs van de Westelaken and Bruce Weiss wanted to honor his memory by signing on American directors to collaborate with members of Van Gogh's original film crew. Steve Buscemi wanted in. Perhaps best known to viewers as Tony Blundetto from "The Sopranos," Buscemi had directed a number a TV episodes and feature films, including his most recent, "Lonesome Jim" (2005). He liked the idea of the living memorial, and he felt an immediate connection to "Interview."
If ever a screenplay depended on the ability of two actors to pull it off, it's this one. There are only two principal characters, and they have to hold our attention for 84 minutes. Both actors do just that. Sienna Miller ("Casanova," "Layer Cake") is perfect as the pop diva and TV/film actress who's become an international celebrity largely on the strength of her eye-candy performances in slasher films. And as the jaded journalist who's been mostly a war correspondent and now sees this puff-piece assignment as the worst sort of insult, so is Buscemi.
We only see journalist Pierre Peders in one scene prior to the interview--when he visits his brother in a mental ward--and we only see Katya in a single scene as well, so our view of their separate worlds is really very limited. That's one reason why the screenplay succeeds. The interview presents an opportunity not only for the characters to interact in the moment, but to learn about each other. And as they learn, so do we.
When Pierre arrives at the restaurant where they're supposed to meet, Katya is nowhere to be found. She's a no-show, he tells his editor, begging to be released from the assignment so he can get on a plane to Washington, D.C. to cover a breaking story. But after an hour, in walks the star, oblivious to the fact that she's ridiculously late because she flat-out forgot. Bottom line: neither one is happy to be there, and neither one wants to do the interview.
Naturally, things get off to a rocky start, as the revised script by Buscemi and David Schechter gives each of them some pretty bitingly sarcastic lines to exacerbate the tension. The interview looks to be over when Katya walks out, but when she inadvertently causes an accident and (in the script's most illogical turn) takes Pierre to her nearby loft apartment to patch him up, it sets up a night of drinking, whining, complaining, sparring--even semi-sexual shenanigans.
At one point, after Pierre collapses Katya's hammock and they both end up on the floor, in the film's second most illogical turn they rise and begin dancing together. Now, as a metaphor, it couldn't be more appropriate, because they've been figuratively "dancing" with each other all evening long. But at this point it struck me very much as an improv exercise. In fact, the entire concept seems straight out of acting school: Here's your situation, now run with it!
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