Caught on Tape?
The film opens with Vince, a guy in boxers, chugging one can of beer in the bathroom while pouring another down the sink. When the cans are empty, he tosses them onto the floor of his hotel room. Why? To suggest he's drunk. A carefully fabricated image.
Tape has only three characters: Vince (Ethan Hawke), a dealer from Oakland, John (Robert Sean Leonard), an aspiring film director, and Amy (Uma Thurman) an assistant DA. They spend the evening before John's first premiere trying to outwit one another to figure out what really happened, ten years ago, at the end of senior year. The camera never leaves the dingy hotel room, so the action rises through sharp dialogue in a fierce battle of wits. (If this suggests to you that it's a) an independent film or b) based on a stage play, you're right.) The tensions shift around two persistent conflicts: who's lying, and who's leaving? Since the plot is character driven, it's carried by the fact that all three stars deliver killer, and unexpected, performances.
The film's full of plot twists, but it's primarily concerned with a theme of honesty. It doesn't matter who lies, but who believes it? Where are the real motives? And that makes it a very human film--about manipulation and denial, sure, but more importantly, about admitting what you'd prefer to hide.
This isn't a psycho-thriller or an emotional drama. You won't scream or cry. You'll simply watch three very real people collide, reluctantly trying to pull skeletons out of closets. It's not immediately clear who succeeds and who fakes it. That's why the movie will linger in your head for days. And that, I suppose, is what makes it so intriguing.
Final Notes:
Overall, the entertainment value's around 3.
But if you like tricky movies that play with your head, 5.
Recommended.
3 out of 5
Reviewed by Laurel
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