Product Description

After ten years apart three desperate people come together to play out the unresolved drama of their final days in high school. As years of denial slowly peel away each is provoked into revealing their true nature. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 07/20/2004 Starring: Ethan Hawke Robert Sean Leonard Run time: 83 minutes Rating: R

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46629 in DVD
• Brand: Lions Gate
• Released on: 2002-04-16
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 86 minutes

From The New Yorker
Richard Linklater, the same guy who directed the feature "Waking Life," turns out a nifty adaptation of a single-set play by Stephen Beller (who also wrote the screenplay). It all takes place, in real time, in a dreary East Lansing motor hotel. An unusually animated Ethan Hawke plays a smart young drug dealer reuniting with an old high-school buddy (Robert Sean Leonard) who has become a film director. Leonard's character is the kind of pompous success who wants people to think well of him but may actually be a bit of a louse underneath; back in high school, he took the drug dealer's girlfriend away and may or may not have date-raped her. As the two men grapple, the girlfriend (Uma Thurman)-now an assistant district attorney-shows up in the hotel room. You can see the theatrical manipulations coming, but you are held by the knife thrusts of aggression and the reversals at the end. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

A suspenseful, superbly acted piece of 'Motel Hell'
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+

Motel room ignites past...
This film took me two days to decide whether I liked it or not. When the final credits rolled, rather creatively at that, I couldn't figure out if this was pure brilliance on the part of Richard Linklater, or if it was nothing more than a group of friends trying to make an independent film. I could not decide. I even listened to the audio commentary of Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater to see if I could capture their mood of the film to hopefully influence mine. While it was a very interesting audio commentary, it only provided more indecisiveness. After thinking about this for two days, I finally thought about it long enough and realized that if a film makes you think for two days after viewing, there has to be something spectacular about it, and there was. After two days I was able to put my finger on it. You had a very chilling story, a deeply disturbing confession, a powerhouse of acting by Robert Sean Leonard and Uma Thurman, and then there was Ethan Hawke. I put him aside because it was his acting, his portrayal of Vince that took away the inches of film that nearly made it into perfection. Let me explain.

This is a story, that on the surface seems small, is very large in structure. While its only setting is inside a motel room, the written word by Stephen Belber transforms this into a thrilling drama about past lives and future consequences. From the opening scene of Hawke throwing his beers into the motel door until the final dramatic conclusion where Vince is caught up in the web of his own lies, we never really know anything about him. Leonard talks briefly about what he is doing and why he is currently single, but we never really get to know Ethan's character. This is what muddled in my mind for those two days, I continually had to ask myself who Vince really was. Was he a friend trying to help Leonard with a guilty conscious, or was he on the side of Amy trying to give her the conclusion that she wanted. Who knows? I think I needed more structure with Ethan's Vince. We needed more from Linklater to help us understand this self-appointed villain, or even more from Ethan to reveal his ultimate purpose. Instead, what occurred was Ethan just jumping around being annoying with no purpose except what you could hear Linklater telling him. Here is what I could hear: "Ok, Ethan, your purpose in this scene is to ensure that Leonard doesn't leave, do whatever it takes". Ethan takes this direction and adds a couple of swear words and uses screaming to keep him in the room instead of countering with more plot. Does this make sense? I felt like I knew why Leonard and Thurman were there in that room, but WHY Ethan was bringing them together was never told. I know that perhaps it was left up to the viewer, but this story needed a hint. It needed to provide some reasoning for the situation. I felt Ethan held us back from learning that. Someone else in the role may have done better, but Ethan just felt lost and stagy.

As I said before, Leonard and Thurman really carried this film on their shoulders. I was impressed to see Leonard taking such heavy work, but his true acting ability really came forth. The same goes for Uma who successfully took the idea of "husband and wife" away while working with Ethan. I was concerned that it would be a factor in Tape, but luckily these two were able to keep their characters separate. The chemistry that Leonard and Thurman had on screen was shattering. I found myself holding my breath during their parts from both emotion and the tension that they created. Outside of Ethan, they did a great job.

The story was a very tight story. I loved being brought into the middle of this controversy and seeing that a world can be created and destroyed in a hotel room. I thought that concept was a hard one to tackle, but Stephen Belber (who also wrote the play) did a fantastic job of eliminating the corporate element and giving us the pure human drama that exists between these characters. Linklater likewise really pulls this film together well by keeping the tensions high and elaborate as our characters progress through the phases of this predicament. The only trouble I had with Linklater's direction deals with his swirling camera. Whenever two people were talking to each other we found ourselves swirling between the two instead of using one large shot or quick cuts. I thought this was annoying at times, and quite dizzying. It detracted from the words that the actors were speaking and from the impact of the story. That is my only critique of Linklater's direction, which was nearly flawless.

Overall, this was an impressive and very intense drama that will keep you on the edge of your seat due to its strong reality and human element. It took me a while for me to realize this, and will probably take some time for it to sink into your mind, but that is the nature of this film. It is created to leave this lasting impression on your mind and to haunt your mind during your next visit with friends. I think Linklater did an excellent job with the material that he was handed, proving that his work could be compared to early Cameron Crowe material. Leonard and Thurman explode onto the scene, while Hawke leaves a bit more to be desired. I do believe that Linklater should have considered another actor for his role. Either way, this was a great film that took away the classic Hollywood backdrop and gave us nothing but 100% pure acting.

Grade: **** out of *****

Claustrophobic Masterpiece
Wow. Ok, so that is a pathetic way to start a movie review. But my god, what a movie.

Tape is directed by Richard Linklater (Before Sunrise, Waking Life) and stars Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, and Uma Thurman. They are the only cast members of the film and the entire feature takes place in a single motel room.

The film was shot on digital and the opening sequences had me dreading yet another movie that is to showcase the direction and film quality with no real plot. I could not have been more wrong.

There are very few films that can be carried merely by the dialogue of the actors. Tape is one of them. As the credits started rolling, both my husband and I were sitting in awe with our mouths hanging open. And the amazing thing is, while I knew what was happening and even predicted the ending, I was still completely captivated as I watched it unravel.

It's very realistic in presentation. Though by the end, you still don't know what the true reality of the film was. But I think that's how it's supposed to be. Very reflective of life. The difference between true fact (if there is such a thing) and the perceptions of the people involved. The effect that intention has on a situation.

I highly recommend this movie, especially if you liked Before Sunrise and Waking Life. Though beyond being based on dialogue, Tape is in a league of its own.