Interview

This US remake of a film by Dutch provocateur Theo Van Gogh, killed by an Islamic extremist in 2004, has director-star Buscemi as a political journo who reckons his latest ‘people profile’ assignment on a ‘bimbo’ actress is pretty much beneath his contempt. In the course of an evening however, the lady herself proves rather more complex than his assumptions. Appropriately-cast Miller matches Buscemi all the way in the drink-fuelled verbal and physical confrontation which ensues, and if the excellent performances can’t disguise the material’s sometimes forced emotional switchbacks, the movie never tells you what to think about either of these damaged, calculating individuals. Ultimately a two-hander limited in scale, but frisky and diverting with it.