Tape

In Tape two old school friends, Vince and Johnny, meet again on the occasion of Johnny visiting his home town, whose local film festival is showing his debut film as a director. Johnny is in many ways a success story, while Vince is something of a failure both in his private life and in his career. The unequal relationship puts the friendship to the test, and it becomes even more awkward when a third person from the past turns up. Amy is the girl both guys were crazy about in high school, but what actually happened between her and Vince, and not least between her and Johnny, and what impact has it had on the guys' friendship? These are some of the questions the film asks, but several of the answers are left blowing in the wind. In the dialogue, which is the film's mainstay, there is so much playing with perceptions of reality and with words that in the end it hardly matters.

The overall impression of Tape is of a static chamber piece. The film takes place entirely in one location, a dreary hotel room, and although the director does everything to breathe life into the drama with a restless hand-held camera, it still becomes too claustrophobic and stagy. The source material is indeed a play, and that is all too evident.

While director Richard Linklater and one of his actors, Ethan Hawke, succeed rather well in creating accomplished dialogue-driven films with "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset", it does not really work here. It does not help that Ethan Hawke's character is a thoroughly irritating acquaintance, and that the love-triangle drama never really catches fire.