Interview With the Vampire

Contemporary San Francisco - Louis de Pointe du Lac (Pitt) tells a journalist (Slater) the strange details of his life: how two centuries earlier he was attacked by the degenerate vampire Lestat (Cruise); how he rejected his mentor's advice by feeding on rats and poodles; how the pair 'adopted' a young orphan, Claudia (Dunst), whose thirst for blood outstripped even Lestat's; how their individual inclinations and ethical codes gave rise to lethal tensions between the various members of this bizarre, undead 'family'; and so on. For all its ambitions and visual flair, Jordan's adaptation of Anne Rice's novel is a disappointment. It's not only not scary, it's also dull and conventional. True, the emphasis on Dante Ferretti's lavish production design makes for some heavy dollops of 'atmosphere'; true, too, that the acting is adequate. The major problem lies with Rice's own script which is dramatically repetitive and philosophically banal. Profoundly unremarkable.