THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 15, 1994 TAG: 9411150047
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E7 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines
MORE THAN three-quarters through ``Interview With the Vampire,'' the ruthless Lestat announces, with some degree of irritation, that he is weary of the constant whining of Louis, his prime victim.
A good portion of the sellout audience at the Lynnhaven 8 in Virginia Beach broke into applause.
The reaction is understandable. By this time we've heard enough talk, talk, talk about Louis' soul-searching. You almost wish vampires had never learned to talk.
The good news for fans of Anne Rice's immensely popular novel is that the film sticks to the creepy mood of the book. That's also the bad news for people who couldn't care less about the book. Rice, who is credited with the script, is apparently much better at creating mood than she is at doing anything with it. Her wandering, ambling narrative better serves her readers.
Despite all the talk about superstar Tom Cruise playing the loathsome Lestat, Brad Pitt has the important, much lengthier role of Louis, the handsome Louisiana plantation owner who ``goes over to the dark side'' after drinking the blood of his vampire attacker. He regrets it endlessly, feeding his lust for blood with rats and chickens. Apparently, though, a vampire can only go so long without a gourmet meal.
Pitt, whom everyone expected to emerge as a major star after ``The River Runs Through It,'' seems to be taking his time about making the breakthrough. ``Vampire'' gives him screen time, but it is hardly an appealing, star-making role. Still, one suspects, he does all that is possible with this passive, repetitive character.
Cruise works hard and appears to be having a great time. (He's always had the teeth for it.) Anyone who saw the trauma he suggested in ``Born on the Fourth of July'' knows he is more than just a marquee name. With Lestat, he must suggest an ancient mind - a maturing, weary resonance within the body of an eternally living force of evil - and it is more than he can deliver. At his best moments, Cruise is droll and humorous; at his worst, he tries to be threatening. He never quite brings off the latter.
The two stars, though, are eclipsed by 12-year-old newcomer Kirsten Dunst. As the child vampire Claudia, she matures into hapless adulthood while remaining in a child's body. It is a disconcerting, involving performance, the best child-maniac role since Patty McCormack in ``The Bad Seed'' and a throwback to Linda Blair in ``The Exorcist.'' The film perks up whenever Dunst, a likely Oscar nominee, is on screen.
The film is framed by a contemporary San Francisco setting in which journalist Christian Slater (who replaced the late River Phoenix) interviews Pitt. The flashback is to Louisiana in 1791 when Louis, mourning the death of his brother (it was his wife in the book), gives in. Lestat wants companionship, a loneliness that is his only vulnerability. When he sinks his teeth into Louis' neck, it's ecstasy.
The homoerotic tease is continued as the two observe a Parisian opera company that's to town. Then, ``it is time for a little French cuisine.''
Louis, Lestat and Claudia form an eerie kind of family. The child and Louis go to 18th century France and eventually decide they must kill their creator.
Antonio Banderas (``Philadelphia'') and Stephan Rea (``The Crying Game'') are largely wasted as opera-company vampires - ``vampires pretending to be humans pretending to be vampires.'' While most of Banderas' lines are indiscernible, chewed up by his accent, he does make a meaningful comment when he utters, ``We must be powerful, beautiful and without regret.''
Director Neil Jordan, before his re-emergence with the hit ``The Crying Game,'' had a dress rehearsal for this film 10 years ago with ``The Company of Wolves.'' He seems to have a firm hand, but if the recent ``Mary Shelley's Frankenstein'' was hyperactive, this outing lacks energy.
As a screenwriter, Rice uses the most convenient crutch available - off-screen narration. True, it is difficult to show mood, but film is a visual art, not a literary one. Purists will note the many small changes from her novel; for the most part, though, this is an obvious effort at filming a book more than making a film. Ultimately we tire of Louis' tortured soul.
The production values are superb. Cinematographer Philippe Rousselot (Oscar winner for ``The River Runs Through It'') gives the film a misty, deceptively beautiful look - as if to seduce us in the same way as was Louis.
Dante Ferretti, production designer for the wonderful, underrated ``Age of Innocence,'' is better at suggesting New Orleans than he is at Paris, but the film is always great-looking. Sandy Powell's (``Orlando'') costume designs are striking, as is the score by Elliot Goldenthal.
You could say the same for ``Interview With the Vampire'': It looks great, but it is not so much about the tortures of eternal life as it just seems to run for an eternity. It's just one of those fangs. ILLUSTRATION: B/W photo by FRANCOIS DUHAMEL
Tom Cruise portrays Lestat and 12-year-old newcomer Kirsten Dunst is
Claudia in ``Interview With the Vampire.''
The film perks up whenever Dunst, a likely Oscar nominee, is on
screen.
Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Interview With the Vampire''
Cast: Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Christian Slater, Kirsten Dunst,
Stephen Rea, Antonio Banderas
Director: Neil Jordan
Screenplay: Anne Rice, based on her novel
Music: Elliot Goldenthal
MPAA rating: R (blood feasts, both with rats and humans; some
nudity; decapitations)
Mal's rating: 2 and 1/2 stars
Locations: Cinemark Movies 10, Chesapeake; Janaf, Main Gate
Movies 10, Norfolk; Commodore Theatre, Portsmouth; Kempsriver
Crossing, Lynnhaven 8, Pembroke, Virginia Beach
by CNB