Richard Linklater's new film, "Tape" is the most jarring film of his career. The film takes place entirely in a hotel room in Michigan where the main character, Vince, (played by Ethan Hawke),is downing two beers at once. He is waiting for the arrival of his old friend, John, (Robert Sean Leonard), an indie film-maker whose new film is playing at a local film-festival.

Vince's motivations for seeing John have less to do with seeing his friend again and more to do with confronting him about an incident which happened when they were younger. Apparently, back in their high school days, John raped a woman named Amy, (played by Uma Thurman). Amy was Vince's ex-girlfriend and someone whom both men are still infactuated with. However, the story is less about the somewhat ambiguous question over whether or not John raped Amy and more about these two characters and their lack of control over their lives. If any character in a Richard Linklater film can be described as a loser, it's Vince. He drinks beer, smokes pot and snorts coke throughout the entire movie. He is a drug-dealer who deludes himself that he also has a legitimate job, and therefore control over his life, as a volunteer fire-fighter. John, on the other hand, seemingly has more control over his life, but that's only because he deals with his shattered ego internally while Vince deals with it externally. John has a dream job - a young up and coming film director whose movie is playing at a film-festival. And yet, he is terribly dissatisfied with his life. He tells Vince that the film festival is only showing his film once in the afternoon and that it is only a small film-festival, anyway. One gets the feeling that the only reason why John hangs out with a guy like Vince is to feel secure in his own existence. He only seems relaxed wheh he tells Vince that he should get a life.

Two-thirds of the way through the movie, Amy herself makes an appearance in the hotel room. And it is then that we realize that all this time she has been merely a pawn in these mens' lives to allow them to feel they were in control of their own lives. Whether or not John raped Amy or merely had violent concentual sex with her, that situation was all about the self-conscious John feeling that he was controling someone else since he couldn't control his own life. And Vince's defence of Amy's honor has more to do with the fact that Amy never went all the way with him and John did. As it turns out Amy is the only one who has any control over her life. And, subsequently it is she who uses these two men as a kind of revenge at the way they have been using her. This is a very daring and extremely unconventional film which will have a hard time finding an audience. Certainly, it will not be for everyone. Visually, it is far different from any film Linklater has made in the past. In films like "Before Sunrise" and "SubUrbia", Linklater's camera was brilliantly unobtrusive, enabling us to quietly observe these charcters and what makes them tick, with Linklater never drawing attention to the camera. In "Tape", on the other hand, the viewer feels like a voyeur intruding on something that has nothing to do with them - the way Amy herself probably feels when watching these two men. And the camera is constantly drawing attention to itself to the point where it's actually distracting and even infuriating. If the sight of people talking in previous Linklater films felt inviting, this feels more like an uncomfortable situation you can't get out of.

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 *****