Cast: Hugo Weaving, Tony Martin, Aaron Jeffrey, Paul Sonkkila, Michael Caton, Peter McCauley, Glynis Angel
Director: Craig Monahan
Producer: Bill Hughes
Screenplay: Craig Monahan, Gordon Davie
Cinematography: Bill Hughes
Music: David Hirschfelder
U.S. Distributor: Cinema Guild
The Interview is one of a handful of pictures that slips into and out of theaters relatively unnoticed. A two-year old Australian import, the film is being released by Cinema Guild, a small distribution outfit that lacks the finances to mass-produce prints or purchase advertising. The hope is that the movie will build an audience based on word of mouth - but that approach is uncertain given the inconsistency of the movie's limited North American distribution. Nevertheless, whether on the big screen or the small one, The Interview is worth the effort to seek out.
What starts out as a seemingly straightforward police thriller develops into something far less conventional, where even the most seasoned movie-goer will find himself or herself re-assessing the characters and the storyline that defines their interaction. The Interview becomes a meditation upon police procedure, justice, truth, and the (un)reliable narrator. It isn't until the final frame of the motion picture that first-time director Craig Monahan answers the question that preys upon the mind of every viewer (and, even when he does so, there's still room for interpretation).
The film opens with an unkempt man, Eddie Fleming (Hugo Weaving), being rousted out of bed when the police break down his front door. As is cursorily explained to him by Detective Sergeant John Steele (Tony Martin) and his thugish associate, Detective Senior Constable Wayne Prior (Aaron Jeffrey), he is wanted in association with a stolen car. After being cuffed, terrorized, and humiliated, Fleming is taken to the police station to be interviewed. That segment of the movie, which comprises most of the running length, turns into a cat-and-mouse war of wills between Fleming and Steele.
For his part, Steele believes that Fleming may be connected to a series of seemingly unrelated murders, and he uses every trick in the book to get Fleming to reveal something. Along with Prior, he plays "good cop/bad cop", all the while unaware that he is under surveillance by Internal Affairs. Meanwhile, Fleming regains the composure he lost when the police broke into his home, but is his calm demeanor merely his way of reacting to circumstances, or does he have a deeper motive? And, when he appears to let something slip by the way of a confession, is he weaving a story or recounting the facts?
The Interview is presented using a tense, claustrophobic style, with most of the action taking place in a single room. In order to avoid a sense of visual monotony in this fishbowl setting, Monahan frequently varies camera placement. The longer the film runs, the higher the level of suspense becomes, and, with seemingly every new twist, we find ourselves re-evaluating how we feel about the seemingly naïve Fleming and his captors.
In essence, Monahan is examining one of the trickiest questions of law and justice - something that applies not only in Australia, but in every society with its roots in English jurisprudence. Is it better for a guilty man to go free in order to protect against the possibility of an innocent man being sent to prison? If Fleming is blameless, then he is being horribly mistreated by the police, but if he is a serial killer, then Steele's methods seem justified - perhaps even lenient. And, because Monahan doesn't tip his hand, viewers teeter from one point-of-view to the other.
While Tony Martin and Aaron Jeffrey, the actors playing Steele and Prior, are solid, the real standout is Hugo Weaving, whose portrayal of Fleming ranges across the spectrum from the terrified innocent to the inscrutable gamesman. Weaving, although perhaps not an immediately recognizable name, has had his share of international exposure. In Jocelyn Moorehouse's fine black comedy, Proof, he played the lead character, a blind man with a sour disposition. In The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, he was one of the cross-dressers. And, in his most visible role to date, The Matrix, he was the leader of the forces pursuing Keanu Reeves. Yet, as good as he was in those films, his work in The Interview represents his finest performance to date.
The Interview reminds me of a 1997 American film called Deceiver, which starred Michael Rooker and Chris Penn as two cops interrogating a genius suspect, played by Tim Roth. Both The Interview and Deceiver have similar goals and intentions, and both succeed in their own ways. The Interview is the more complete film - there's less melodrama in the storyline, the characters are more sharply focused, and the circumstances are more believable. With a smart, uncompromising screenplay that never talks down to its audience, direction that highlights the intensity of the situation, and on-the-mark performances, The Interview may become The Best North American Release of 2000 That No One Sees.
© 2000 James Berardinelli