SO much has been written about Interview with the Vampire that it is difficult to know where to start with a review of the final product.
It's impossible to see the film without being influenced by the awesome weight of press coverage which has preceded it. Is Tom Cruise really excellent, as I thought, or is he simply better than we have been led to expect? There seems little doubt that co-star Brad Pitt is leaden, and cannot carry the film in the moments where Cruise takes a respite from the action. The movie, like Anne Rice's novel from which it has been adapted, tends towards the verbose; but its faithfulness has also captured the spirit of the original text.
One thing is certain - Interview with the Vampire requires a leap of faith on the part of the viewer. If you are not seduced, and quickly, this tale of vampire high jinks will seem overly Gothic and ridiculous. But director Neil Jordan pulls out all the stops from the word go.
We start off in a bare room, brightly lit, where reporter Christian Slater has apparently been lured by Louis De Pointe Du Lac (Pitt) with the promise of a life-story which goes on for two centuries.
How he became a vampire brings us into contact with Tom Cruise as Lestat De Lioncourt, the giant personality who towers over this story. When Louis becomes suicidal over the loss of his wife and child in 18th century New Orleans, the mercurial Lestat pounces and offers him the Devil's choice - drink my blood and live forever. Louis succumbs, and recoils in horror at his new vampire's nature. He must kill to live.
Louis finally takes a small child, and Lestat turns her into a vampire too - Claudia (Kirsten Dunst) now completes this unholy 'family'. Interview does have homo-erotic overtones, but ultimately the vampire's lust is indiscriminate.