Anne Rice is the mother of the modern vampire. Twilight, True Blood, Vampire Diaries and every other variety of 21st century bloodsucker owes an enormous debt to her. It was she who transformed the image of vampires from Eastern European Counts with strong accents and a bat fetish, into the modern young, glamorous and angst ridden undead super-heroes that we've come to know today. Although several attempts have been made to adapt Rice's work to the screen, so far Interview with a Vampire, directed by Neil Jordan, written by Rice herself and featuring an all-star cast, is the only one to be successful.
The title stems from the idea that Louis (Pitt), a vampire, tells the story of his life in modern day San Francisco via an interview. This allows Louis to narrate the story from a modern perspective and provide commentary on it as it goes along.
In 1791, Louis, distraught over the death of his wife and child, becomes suicidal, only instead of finding death, he finds undeath in the arms of the vampire Lestat (Cruise). Becoming immortal does little to improve Louis' mood as he finds it comes with the price of having to commit murder every night to stay alive. Lestat, on the other hand, lives for the kill and loves everything there is to love about being a vampire.
At the time of its release, the casting of Cruise as Lestat was the biggest news about the movie. Rice famously disapproved and then changed her mind (whether sincerely or simply to help sell movie tickets is anybody's guess) about the casting choice and legions of the book's fans were in an uproar over it. He actually does a decent job in the part. There's really only one thing wrong with this movie version of Lestat and that's the god awful wig Cruise is forced to wear. I know that they wanted to make him blonde as he is in the books, but that was really the best they could come up with?
In an effort to keep Louis happy, Lestat creates a vampire child for him. Claudia (a young Kirsten Dunst), is exactly what Louis needs to draw himself out of himself. He and Lestat become her "parents". While young, Claudia and Lestat become close as they hunt together, but as Claudia ages, but her body remains that of a child, she begins to resent him. Her relationship with Louis matures and they become something like lovers, which leads them down a path that separates them from Lestat and sends them to Europe where they hope to discover something of the truth about vampires.
While Pitt and Cruise are both serviceable in their parts, it is Dunst who truly delivers the best performance in the film. She has a maturity in the part that truly belies her young age and you have no problem believing that she really is a grown woman in the body of a child. She is the most sympathetic character. Louis mopes too much and Lestat is fun, but he only has himself to blame for what happens to him. Claudia, while a killer, is the true victim of the three. "Yet you could do it to me. Snatch me from my mother's hand, like two monsters in a fairy tale. And now you weep!" she tells Louis.
Much of the credit for this movie must go to director Neil Jordan. It is beautiful to look at and dripping with atmosphere. Rice's script, while filled with some great lines, is also highly dramatic and the mood of the film goes hand in hand with it. Surely he must have had a hand in pulling such a grown-up performance out of Dunst as well.
It's far too late to reassemble the cast from this movie for a sequel now, but if they could bring Neil Jordan back on board as director, I would be the first in line to see it. With vampires at such a peak of popularity right now, I can't believe no one has thought of reviving the books as either another movie or even a television series.
