Review of Tape (2001) by Jack G — 08 Feb 2013

Richard Linklater adapts a three-man chamber play set in one single hotel room in real-time. If you're familiar with his work this sounds terrifying, doesn't it?

One could conclude that Tape is 90 minutes of talking - and well, it essentially is, but first of all, look who's talking and secondly, what they're saying is fascinating, riveting, spellbinding.

The cast consists of the great Linklater regular Ethan Hawke, who shows his badass chops here. He's joined by his Dead Poets Society co-star Robert Sean Leonard (aka Dr. Wilson) and his then-real-life-wife Uma Thurman.

The three were former high school class mates and lovers who reunite after ten years, when Jon (Leonard) shows one of his documentary films at the Lansing film festival (Lansing is, where Amy is Assistant DA).

The film takes place in Vince's hotel room, as he's travelled here to meet his old friend Jon and watch his new film.

Linklater presents it to us, in a low-tech, found-footage-like style and the quality of the film material and the lighting is not exactly state of the art but this doesn't take away anything from the film. Technical details can be ignored as there's not so much to see as to hear anyways.

What's interesting though is the ways Linklater uses the limited space for his own good. The distances between the protagonists are crucial for the psychological effect it has on the viewer. And although, there's not much movement by the characters, the little there is, tells us as much about them as their dialogue.

Especially, with Thurman's entrance (after 50 minutes or so) it adds a whole new dimension to the ongoings.

Parked, somewhere between psychological drama, crime film and relationship and character study, Tape is in my opinion one of Linklater's best.