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Rating:  -
With the acting expertise of only three actors and entirely set in a motel room, Richard Linklater presents an awesome adaptation of this one-act play. Linklater does an excellent job of creating a sense of claustrophobia and psychological drama in the motel room as the characters become sucked in by Ethan Hawke's character and ultimately involved in a triangular struggle of mental manipulation, control and competition of authenticity.
Once you get beyond the claustrophobia of the room, the viewer is then subjected to a form of mental claustrophobia. At times, it was very frustrating to see each of the characters struggling to communicate with each other. At times it seemed like they were all talking different languages to each other or weren't truly listening to each other. At other times it seemed as if each character simply had their own agenda. The movie makes it clear that we sometimes create our own mental prison. There were quite a few times, when the tense dialogue and emotional frustration between Hawke and Leonard got so uncomfortable that I wished Leonard's character would have just left the motel room...but then we would be left with no film! Ironically, his character has a few opportunities to leave, comes close on another occasion and on yet another occasion where he actually does get out the door, shortly returns!
The movie develops even further when Uma Thurman's character enters the room. Tape does an exellent job at illustrating how one event can be perceived and interpreted differently by three individuals, each with their own emotional issues and baggage and individual ideas about how the world works, or is supposed to work. Is there one absolute truth or is each truth in the mind of the individual?
The dialogue between Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, and Uma Thurman works well in vividly illustrating how the human psyche deals with intense feelings of envy, jealousy, pride and guilt. The acting of all three is magnificent.
Ethan Hawke's acting seems effortless in this film. In my opinion, this is one of his best roles and acting performances.
Rating:  -
This movie with three actors in a seedy hotel room seems useless and inane at first but if you hold out until the end it is well worth considering.
Vince (Ethan Hawke) is found in a seedy hotel in Lansing whooping it up and slamming back a few cheap beers while clamoring about in his boxers. Soon an old friend Jon Salter (Robert Sean Leonard) appears and the story begins. These two "friends" discuss old high-school days, mistakes and regrets leaving the audience to wonder about their supposed friendship. An explanation arrives when Amy Randall (Uma Thurman) knocks on the door. Be careful what you wish for sometimes old memories are better left behind!
Ethan Hawke is eerily great in this role as a crazy, drug induced loser looking for answers about a past he can't seem to leave behind. Robert Sean Leonard is the subdued maturity of this film with his character seemingly capable of leaving a secret long in the past until the error of his ways comes back to haunt him. Of course Uma Thurman is wickedly brilliant as the supposed victim who turns a new leaf and leaves a few surprises. As with most independent films the writing and direction is fantastic in this film but the budget is shot! Some scenes are filmed irritatingly like an amateur videographer with far too much movement for the eyes to bear but other than that it moves like a staged dramatic play. Be prepared for lots of twists and turns and the possibility of no real answers as you reach the end of the tape!
Rating: -
Alright, I'll just let it fly right now: I don't think I've seen a movie since Dead Poet's Society in which Ethan Hawke doesn't kinda blow. He's not so believable in Linklater's Before Sunrise, got undeserved acclaim for Training Day, and pretty much destroys the art of acting in Taking Lives. So it was a nice surprise to see him not suck after Linklater's fascinating, superbly acted (holy crap, I just said that about an Ethan Hawke movie) Tape, which needs about 20 minutes to get its look-at-me-I'm-a-badass-indie-film-shot-on-DV-with-cool-angles attitude out of its system. But after that, whoa boy. The film takes place entirely in a low-rent motel room where Hawke is staying; his high school pal, played by the underappreciated Robert Sean Leonard (the guy who blew his brains out in DPS), drops by and before you know it, it's less high school reunion and more Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. You see, Hawke's Vince exposes a secret from Leonard's Jon's past and a cunning game of psychological hot potato begins. What impressed me the most about Tape is how it defied my expectations at every point that the movie turned - there are more twists in it than a Hollywood thriller, and the movie becomes so engrossing at points that interest becomes giddiness. But the best thing about Tape is how well its actors (including Uma Thurman, who drops by in a pivotal role) navigate the facial and verbal expressions that would accompany such an encounter. For a low-budget indie that could have been pretentious and silly, this movie is so well-nuanced and executed it'll have you clamoring for more in its all-too-brief 84 minutes. GRADE: B+
Rating: -
Richard Linklater(School Of Rock, Suburbia, Dazed and Confused) directs this powerful and in your face experience about three friends who come back in their lives and then things start heating up. Hawke is a drug dealer, who blames Leonard for raping Thurman way back when. When the tensing and the sparks fly between the 3, its great acting and to the 3 actors its probably one of the best performances of the leads in their careers. one of the best movies of 2001, period. a movie not to be missed
Rating: -
I don't have much of anything witty to say about this film, I can only say that it is one of those rare films where the superb acting just keeps you transfixed. This movie about three high school friends of ten years prior, who have some very unresolved issues, takes place in just one hotel room. It is so real that you feel like an eavesdropper. I really can't stand about 95% of the movies made in the last 15 years, with very few exceptions. I don't "get" the stars. I am SO sick of Tom Cruise's, Tom Hanks, Jack Nicholson's, and Julia Roberts trademark smirks and quirks (aren't we CUTE?"!) that they have marketed into ridiculously lucrative careers of boring movies that are interchangeable and unmemorable. I tend to put all the actors of today down. Watching Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, and Robert Sean Leonard, as in this fim, makes me realize that I am sometimes wrong in my summation about the actors of today. They are so astoundingly real, that I can't honestly be objective about the storyline of this film, because I was so impressed by their performances. They are among the best actors of today. I recently discovered Uma Thurman, later than everyone else, in "Hysterical Blindness" on HBO, and was just amazed at her performance. I happened upon that film, as with this one, by accident. That she not only stars in this film, but, co-stars with such an incredible actor, Ethan Hawke, who also happens to be her husband, well, let's just say that it's a most wonderful discovery for me. It drew me in in the first minute, and, never let go until the end. I realize that these actors have all been around for a while, and certainly I am "late" in discovering their talents. I guess I need to open myself up to some more recent flicks. It's just that, when I do, they are almost always just plain lousy. These three actors make this film one of those rare occurrences of being overwhelmed by real, unaffected talent. There is not a hint that they are "acting." What a pleasure to, finally, observe art, not just phony box-office garbage. I could drone on and on, just repeating myself, so, I'll stop. I just highly recommend this movie to anyone who is as hungry as I am for an intelligent, non-special effects, skilled film that totally involves you. I really need to watch it again, as I was so caught up in their portrayals, I'm sure there's some things I missed. I am now a "fan" of these actors, if you want to call me that. But, I don't want to know anything about their personal lives. I don't want to watch them on "Entertainment Tonight" or read about them in "People" magazine. I just want to experience the pleasure of their talent, and I look forward to their future works with anticipation.
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