Interview: Critic Reviews

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Any doubts as to whether Sienna Miller is a gifted actress should be laid to rest by Interview.

Vaporous and chilled to freezing, Interview lacks a single honest moment, but it does have plenty of diverting ones.

There can hardly be a bigger waste of time than this conceited and self-indulgent two-hander directed by Steve Buscemi, remade from a Theo Van Gogh film.

Director Steve Buscemi is not to be faulted for his filmmaking or acting skills, but as co-writer he could have done better than the false-sounding dialogue.

Buscemi's film conveys the spirit of its source material but doesn't make a satisfying transmogrification out of its homage.

Ultimately, pointless. One comes away from Interview exhausted.

The least concrete and most artificial of Buscemi's films. But that's as much because of the situation as Buscemi and David Schechter's slippery script.

Buscemi can play a hangdog cynic better than anyone, and Miller seizes her opportunity to express every emotion an actress can be asked to express.

Pierre is such a weasel, Katya is such a narcissist and the outcome seems so pre-determined, it's hard to care whose belt gets the notch. The adroit performances of Buscemi and Miller almost make it matter.

I'll just say that Buscemi, who also directed and co-wrote, knows a lot about making movies but little about journalism.

I've sat through so many claustrophobic examples of the genre I forgot how exhilarating, how pure a great one could be. Interview is a great one -- electric as theater and cinema.

Kind of fascinating, especially in the ways that Buscemi and Miller make their performances into commentaries on the types of characters they play. When actors are really turned loose to play actors, they can achieve merciless accuracy.

The results may not seem to be taking place on planet Earth among verifiable humans, but, taken in the spirit of gladiatorial battle, the film is often fascinating.

Despite a few interesting twists and ambiguities, the main revelation -- that the reporter is an insufferable snob -- doesn't seem worth the 84 minutes devoted to spelling it out.

An eminently watchable contest between two actors at the top of their games.

This movie keeps falling out of rhythm just when it should be picking up pace. It's a fitful piece of wrong beginnings and false ends.

Mr. Buscemi and Ms. Miller prove that they are fully up to the task of carrying a whole movie on their shoulders without any help from the other characters.

Steve Buscemi's adaptation preserves the original's biting basic scenario while adding a few Americanizing tweaks to this tale.

Miller is so good -- dumb, smart, wounded, wounding, a lollipop of sweet poison that you'd buy every day until it killed you -- that you feel you not only understand her but all actresses.

A mixed bag of realism and arch, dramatic exaggeration.

The most impressive thing about Interview is how much shock it manages to muster over the walloping nonrevelation that, now more than ever, hype begets headlines. Next up: the rich are getting richer!

The end result of this showcase for Buscemi's writing, acting and directing chops is so uneven and mixed in small details and overall tone that it's anybody's guess if it's one for the Oscars or the Razzies next year.

This veneer of pseudo-adult psychological realism doesn't stop the film from being trashy, awkward and implausible, something like a stage play that might have seemed challenging in 1976.

Interview has its moments but they can't prevent it from feeling a little long winded and unsatisfying. The premise makes it sound more interesting than the in-theater experience delivers.