Themes: Faltering Friendships, Haunted By the Past
Main Cast: Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, Uma Thurman
Release Year: 2001
Country: US
Run Time: 86 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
In the same year that filmmaker Richard Linklater explored the possibilities of image manipulation in digital filmmaking with Waking Life, he also embraced the new medium's potential for creating intimate character portraits under confined circumstances with this feature, based on the play by Stephen Belber. Johnny (Robert Sean Leonard) is a 30-year-old filmmaker who is enjoying a recent run of success and has returned to his old hometown of Lansing, MI, to show his latest project at a film festival. While in town, Johnny pays a visit to Vince (Ethan Hawke), an old friend from high school who is staying in a nearby hotel. Vince has never had a knack for responsibility and these days scrapes together a living as a low-level drug dealer. Johnny and Vince discuss their lives, with Johnny more than a bit judgmental about Vince's current situation, when the conversation turns to Amy (Uma Thurman), a girl who was Vince's girlfriend through much of high school and who Johnny dated for a brief spell afterward. Johnny confesses that he hasn't thought about Amy in ages, but Vince informs him that she's living nearby, then begins firing a series of increasingly pointed questions at him about his relationship with Amy, concluding with the shocking accusation that Johnny once raped Amy at a party. Like Waking Life, Tape was entirely shot using digital video equipment, and director Linklater remained true to the story's origins as a stage play, using only three actors and one set for the entire film. Both Tape and Waking Life premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Of the two 2001 releases churned out as director Richard Linklater became drunk on the possibilities of digital video, Tape is by far the more unassuming -- filmed plays are sort of a staple for maverick directors -- but the movie's use of inexpensive technology to bring resolutely uncommercial material to the big screen is in many ways as exciting as Waking Life's revolutionary rotoscoped animation. (Both films appeared at the 2001 Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals before their fall theatrical releases.) Stephen Belber's one-act source material may, at first, have the air of a hot-button graduate thesis project committed to film, but Linklater and his trio of performers find ways of envigorating the material without resorting to actorly grandstanding and trumped-up technique. As the script invites the audience's loyalty to shift from person to person, Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, and Uma Thurman all manage to generate some degree of sympathy even as the plot rightfully keeps them at arm's length; they're all identifiable human beings, thanks to Linklater's deft, improvisational method. The director at times seems a little too enamored with his newfound ability to over-shoot a scene -- the quick cutting, multiple angles, and whip pans grow a little tiring towards the end. Still, by lending Tape a vitality and athleticism it might not have had on celluloid, Linklater's use of digital video proves to be not just a financial necessity but an artistic one. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
Mixing together acoustic instruments with computer and field recordings, the Stockholm, Sweden, trio Tape (multi-instrumentalists Andreas Berthling, Johan Berthling, and Tomas Hallonsten) have drawn comparisons to Talk Talk, Gastr del Sol, and John Fahey. In 2002 the band released the dreamy Opera and in 2003 the more song-oriented Milieu, both on the Swedish Häpna label. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide
His friend, documentary filmmaker Jon Salter (Leonard) (a graduate of the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts), joins Vince in his motel room and the two begin to reminisce about their high school years. They get on the subject of Amy (Thurman), Vince's former girlfriend. It appears that, while they dated for some time, Vince and Amy never had sex. However, after their relationship had ended, Amy slept with Jon.
Vince claims Amy had told him that Jon had raped her. Vince becomes obsessed with, and eventually succeeds in getting a verbal confession from Jon about, the alleged rape. Immediately after Jon's admission, Vince pulls out a hidden tape recorder that had been recording their whole conversation, much to Jon's horror. Vince then tells Jon that he has invited Amy to dinner, and that she will be arriving shortly.
Eventually Amy does arrive and, even though all three of them feel awkward, they begin to talk. Amy explains that she (graduated from the University of Michigan and the University of Michigan Law School) is now an assistant district attorney in the Lansing Justice Department. Eventually the three discuss what actually happened between Jon and Amy that night at the party, ten years in the past.
Amy claims that the encounter was consensual, leading Jon to believe that she is in denial. After Jon becomes annoyed that Amy is refusing to accept his apology, Amy calls the local police. She asks for a squad car to pick up one person in possession of drugs (Vince), and one in relation to a verifiable rape (Jon). After concluding her phone call, Amy warns the men that they only have about four minutes to make a run for it.
In order to prove to Amy that he is truly remorseful, Jon decides to stay and wait for the police. Vince, realizing that there is nowhere for him to run, flushes his narcotics down the toilet and destroys the tape containing Jon's confession.
Amy reveals that she didn't really call the police, and leaves.
Critical reception
The reviews of this film have been generally favorable. It currently holds a 76% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 89 collected reviews[1], and Metacritic assigned a weighted average score of 71 out of 100 based on 26 critic reviews[2]. Film critic Roger Ebert gave this film a 3.5 out of 4 stars, concluding that "for audiences they are stimulating; for other filmmakers, instruction manuals about how to use the tricky new tools."[3]
