Disappointing: Interview

Interview
Directed by Steve Buscemi
Released July 13, 2007

Steve Buscemi is both a talented comedic and dramatic actor (see "Fargo" for instances of both) and a masterful director (the "Pine Barrens" episode of "The Sopranos"). Unfortunately, this feature boasts neither of those attributes for Buscemi. A simple conversation drama that never takes off, "Interview" progresses too quickly yet nothing happens. It is far less intimate and powerful than it purports itself to be, and the evolution of the relationship of the characters is forced at best. The film is a mere 86 minutes, yet feels like it has dragged on for much longer, despite nothing really happening. Buscemi's acting here is nothing memorable. And Sienna Miller is persistently obnoxious as Buscemi's journalist's interview subject. Her performance seems effortless yet so painfully and continually annoying she must be trying to do something. Unlike, say "The Big Kahuna", this dialogue movie's dialogue is nothing to write home about. The biggest and most troubling problem with "Interview" is that neither of the characters are even remotely likeable, and more often than not creepy. It is hard to find sympathy for these characters and to become truly engaged in finding out what will happen to them.

C-