Movie Type: Police Detective Film, Psychological Thriller
Themes: Mind Games, Murder Investigations, Work Ethics
Main Cast: Hugo Weaving, Tony Martin, Aaron Jeffery, Paul Sonkkila, Michael Caton
Release Year: 1998
Country: AU
Run Time: 103 minutes
Plot
Craig Monahan made his directorial debut with this Australian police drama in which unemployed, poverty-stricken Eddie Rodney Fleming (Hugo Weaving), after losing his wife and home, is dragged from his apartment by police and subjected to a brutal interrogation. Eventually, it becomes terrifyingly apparent to Eddie that the police consider him a serial-murder suspect. Detective Sgt. John Steele (Tony Martin) and his assistant, Detective Sgt. Constable Wayne Prior (Aaron Jeffrey), make audiotapes of their efforts to get Fleming to confess. However, they are unaware that they themselves are being investigated and are being videotaped by an internal affairs unit. The question of Eddie's guilt or innocence is effectively concealed for most of the movie. Gordon Davie, Monahan's co-scripter and the film's technical consultant, was a police officer with the Victoria Crime Squad for 16 years. The Interview was shown at several 1997-1998 film festivals (London, Montreal, Melbourne). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Review
A year before Hugo Weaving achieved worldwide fame as Agent Smith, the sadistic computer program posing as a government interrogator, he was the one on the hot seat in the small Australian film The Interview. It's too bad it only got seen down under, because The Interview demonstrates an astonishing subtlety and range by the Aussie actor, which could never be showcased in epics like The Matrix or Lord of the Rings. Violently dragged from his apartment at dawn, Weaving's Eddie Fleming initially seems to be the framed patsy of a fascist police apparatus, not unlike something Agent Smith might be involved in. But as Craig Monahan's film moves forward, never quite fully revealing itself, it becomes less certain that Fleming really deserves audience loyalty, and downright impossible that he's telling the complete truth. But is he lying to cover up a heinous crime, or simply to wrest some food from his remorseless captors? Monahan's film is impressive in its ability to wring real tension from a small narrative that takes place almost entirely in a police station. Within that limited framework, the writer-director has tons to say about both the cops' Gestapo tactics, and the rigid procedural checks and balances that emasculate them in the name of protecting civil rights. Monahan refuses to take a definitive stance, condemning neither and both at the same time. The unsolvable imperfections of the system are the focus, and the audience finds itself in the same state as the flummoxed cops -- not knowing whether they are badgering an innocent man or letting a killer slip through their fingers. Viewers may find themselves frustrated by the ambiguity, but then, that's kind of the point. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
The Interview is a 1998 Australian thriller film from writer-director Craig Monahan, and is the first of two films directed by Monahan. Almost the entire film takes place in a police interrogation room, with some short flashback sequences, and the cast consists primarily of three key actors—Hugo Weaving, Tony Martin, and Aaron Jeffery.
Eddie Rodney Fleming (Weaving) is a quiet, nervous type who recently lost his job and family. One morning, Eddie is seized from his apartment for unknown reasons by two men claiming to be cops. They take him to headquarters and question him about a stolen car. But as tempers rise and the truth is slowly unraveled, Eddie realizes there's more to this interview than meets the eye.
An alternate ending of the film was featured on the DVD release. In this version, Eddie Rodney Fleming is seen hitchhiking along a desolate road. A car stops and Barry Walls (Caton) offers him a ride. Fleming accepts and they drive away, followed at a distance by Steele (Martin) on his motorcycle, no doubt intending to enforce some vigilante justice.
