Film

Dutch provocateur Theo van Gogh was planning to remake his films in America before he was killed by an Islamic extremist in 2004, leaving Steve Buscemi to take up the challenge and cast himself as a world-weary political journo saddled (or so he reckons) with a ‘people profile’ on a fluff actress. In the Dutch original, local TV star Katja Schuurman played herself, though in this New York transfer, tabloid-fodder Sienna Miller’s ‘Katja’ is an understandable approximation. Buscemi’s hack proves so superior he hardly bothers with his research, but over an evening’s highly charged encounter realises he’s underestimated his subject, whose true acting skills are revealed less in her sudsy TV shows and cheapo horror flicks, more in the personal sphere, where seductive wiles turn the tables on her interrogator.

Pitched as if we’re expecting an exposé on some celeb, minimally talented but thriving in the spotlight, the movie proceeds to give ‘Katja’ credit for making it when so many similar wannabes do not. Still, it’s less about media deconstruction than watching the fur fly between two talented performers: Buscemi flitting from weaselly smugness to exposed insecurity, Miller matching him blow for blow, flighty volatility not quite masking her canny instincts for playing her adversary. Good though they are, the actors can’t disguise the script’s forced emotional switchbacks as the drink flows and events get more tactile, though at least it never signposts exactly what we’re to make of these calculating individuals. Ultimately, this two-hander feels limited in scale, but frisky and diverting while it’s on.