Joining the ranks of the pseudo-documentary, which came to full bloom with "This Is Spinal Tap" and enjoyed its greatest boxoffice success with "The Blair Witch Project", is writer-director Neil Burger's "Interview With the Assassin". This cinema verite speculation on the assassination of John F. Kennedy may have been inspired by "Blair Witch", but it takes its techniques into such fresh territory that the film never feels derivative.
For one thing, even though one can fill a small library with volumes written about the murder of President Kennedy, besides Oliver Stone's "JFK" and thinly disguised fictions like "The Parallax View", the movies have pretty much shied away from this topic. "Interview" is certain to provoke discussions and reconsideration of that devastating episode in our nation's history, which could translate into art house success.
Making a movie about the most famous murder in recent history allows Burger to speak to an audience in shorthand. We can leap past Who, Where and What and focus immediately on How and Why. Unwilling to entangle himself in conspiracy theories, however, Burger sets out on a more challenging path through the maze of facts, myths and semitruths.
What if, he wonders, a man dying of cancer came to an unemployed TV news cameraman claiming to be the second gunman, the one hiding on the "grassy knoll" of Dealey Plaza in Dallas? The movie becomes just what it declares itself to be: an assemblage of digital video footage taken by a San Bernardino, Calif., cameraman, Ron Kobeleski (Dylan Haggerty), of the confession of his taciturn, shadowy neighbor Walter Ohlinger (Raymond J. Barry) and their journeys to Dallas and the Washington area, where Walter attempts to prove his claim.
There are revelations along the way, revelations that seem to both substantiate and refute the veracity of the confession. There are also ominous signs the two are being followed, even threatened with harm, as they dig into ground some may wish left undisturbed. Yet this may well represent the paranoia this particular case provokes in people as imaginations run amok.
After striving in vain to cast an unknown in the role of the laconic assassin, Burger went with Barry, a veteran New York stage and film actor. This proves to be a stroke of luck. His deadpan expression and steely, matter-of-fact voice project the chilling demeanor of a man torn by his claim to fame: Pride in a difficult job well done mingles with the shame that an ex-Marine would gun down the country's chief executive.
On its cross-country trip into unremarkable homes and middle-of-nowhere places, the movie encounters aging ghosts from the world of spooks and killers. Walter drops by the desert home of a fellow Marine (Jared McVay) who accompanied him at the Bay of Pigs with a mission to assassinate Castro. Walter's ex-wife (Kate Williamson) is obviously hiding something, but what is it? An elderly man (Darrell Sandeen) hooked up to tubes at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, who Walter claims hired him to shoot the president, mysteriously dies during Walter's brief interview with him.
Yes, it's all fiction, but so is much of what passes for fact in the JFK murder. At this point in time, if someone did come forth with new information, would anybody recognize it as such? Tellingly, Burger's film never illuminates the reason behind the assassination other than to imply government agents were heavily involved. In pursuing this fictional course of inquiry, he asks all the right questions, and Richard Rutkowski's hand-held cinematography and Brad Fuller's nervous editing convince the viewer that these events are transpiring in front of the camera.
INTERVIEW WITH THE ASSASSIN
Magnolia Pictures
Credits: Screenwriter-director: Neil Burger; Producers: Barry Koppelman, David Levien; Executive producer: Tom Tucker; Director of photography: Richard Rutkowski; Production designer: Greg Finnin; Costume designer: Jenny Gering; Editor: Brad Fuller. Cast: Walter Ohlinger: Raymond J. Barry; Ron Kobeleski: Dylan Haggerty; Jimmy Hones: Jared McVay; Steven Wu: Dennis J. Lau; Walter's Ex-wife: Kate Williamson; Karen Kobeleski: Renee Faia.
No MPAA rating, running time 82 minutes.
For one thing, even though one can fill a small library with volumes written about the murder of President Kennedy, besides Oliver Stone's "JFK" and thinly disguised fictions like "The Parallax View", the movies have pretty much shied away from this topic. "Interview" is certain to provoke discussions and reconsideration of that devastating episode in our nation's history, which could translate into art house success.
Making a movie about the most famous murder in recent history allows Burger to speak to an audience in shorthand. We can leap past Who, Where and What and focus immediately on How and Why. Unwilling to entangle himself in conspiracy theories, however, Burger sets out on a more challenging path through the maze of facts, myths and semitruths.
What if, he wonders, a man dying of cancer came to an unemployed TV news cameraman claiming to be the second gunman, the one hiding on the "grassy knoll" of Dealey Plaza in Dallas? The movie becomes just what it declares itself to be: an assemblage of digital video footage taken by a San Bernardino, Calif., cameraman, Ron Kobeleski (Dylan Haggerty), of the confession of his taciturn, shadowy neighbor Walter Ohlinger (Raymond J. Barry) and their journeys to Dallas and the Washington area, where Walter attempts to prove his claim.
There are revelations along the way, revelations that seem to both substantiate and refute the veracity of the confession. There are also ominous signs the two are being followed, even threatened with harm, as they dig into ground some may wish left undisturbed. Yet this may well represent the paranoia this particular case provokes in people as imaginations run amok.
After striving in vain to cast an unknown in the role of the laconic assassin, Burger went with Barry, a veteran New York stage and film actor. This proves to be a stroke of luck. His deadpan expression and steely, matter-of-fact voice project the chilling demeanor of a man torn by his claim to fame: Pride in a difficult job well done mingles with the shame that an ex-Marine would gun down the country's chief executive.
On its cross-country trip into unremarkable homes and middle-of-nowhere places, the movie encounters aging ghosts from the world of spooks and killers. Walter drops by the desert home of a fellow Marine (Jared McVay) who accompanied him at the Bay of Pigs with a mission to assassinate Castro. Walter's ex-wife (Kate Williamson) is obviously hiding something, but what is it? An elderly man (Darrell Sandeen) hooked up to tubes at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, who Walter claims hired him to shoot the president, mysteriously dies during Walter's brief interview with him.
Yes, it's all fiction, but so is much of what passes for fact in the JFK murder. At this point in time, if someone did come forth with new information, would anybody recognize it as such? Tellingly, Burger's film never illuminates the reason behind the assassination other than to imply government agents were heavily involved. In pursuing this fictional course of inquiry, he asks all the right questions, and Richard Rutkowski's hand-held cinematography and Brad Fuller's nervous editing convince the viewer that these events are transpiring in front of the camera.
INTERVIEW WITH THE ASSASSIN
Magnolia Pictures
Credits: Screenwriter-director: Neil Burger; Producers: Barry Koppelman, David Levien; Executive producer: Tom Tucker; Director of photography: Richard Rutkowski; Production designer: Greg Finnin; Costume designer: Jenny Gering; Editor: Brad Fuller. Cast: Walter Ohlinger: Raymond J. Barry; Ron Kobeleski: Dylan Haggerty; Jimmy Hones: Jared McVay; Steven Wu: Dennis J. Lau; Walter's Ex-wife: Kate Williamson; Karen Kobeleski: Renee Faia.
No MPAA rating, running time 82 minutes.
- 11/15/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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