INTERVIEW WITH THE ASSASSIN
Showtime Entertainment, $24.98 The camera flickers on, and the cameraman’s voice begins grilling the man in front of him, who is sixtysomething and hiding behind tinted glasses, a chilling mix of an ex-Marine’s steel and a creepy old man’s menace. Name: Walter Ohlinger; occupation: many, but one odd job sticks out. Walter (played by character actor Raymond J. Barry) says he is the second gunman. You know, the second gunman. The cameraman, Ron Kobeleski (Dylan Haggerty), is wary at first, but soon starts skipping around the country with Walter, taping him at the Grassy Knoll, where Walter coolly retraces his steps, then snaps a Polaroid for two tourists in front of the Texas Book Depository. Taking its cue from The Blair Witch Project, Interview plays like a documentary, relying solely on “footage” from Ron’s camera, surveillance cameras, and some horn-rimmed, hidden-camera glasses Ron pops on in places, like a gun shop, where he might not want to telegraph that he’s a reporter. (The conceit is furthered on the disc’s bonus features, a wet dream for conspiracy theorists.) DP Richard Rutkowski realistically mimics the handheld unsteadiness of documentary camerawork but without the vertiginous heave of BWP, and first-time writer/director Neil Burger has ingeniously found ways to keep the visuals interesting with the use of mirrors and still photography. This is basically a two-man show: cameraman and subject, trolling for clues, one trying to decide if the other is crazy or a killer. Haggerty is fine — nicely schleppy and in way over his head — but it’s Barry who quietly bedazzles, effortlessly toeing the line between sympathy and revulsion. When the camera turns away from him, the film falters; unfortunately, that’s exactly what happens in the film’s final third, in which the tone veers to subpar sleuthing. Despite its initial promise and Barry’s worthy performance, Interview never surmounts its clever concept to achieve something transcendental.This article appears in August 1 • 2003.
