15 Minutes review

Someone said recently that the rash of films about people having their 15 minutes of fame had already had their 15 minutes. Well, if that's the case, then someone clearly forgot to inform John Herzfeld who wrote and directed 15 Minutes, a film titled after Andy Warhol's proclamation and devoted to the pursuit and price of fame.

The film is both a parody and indictment of an American society obsessed with fame; a society whose moral compass is skewed more by money than by integrity. 15 Minutes attempts to convey its message by exaggerating situations sufficiently to make its point, but remaining close enough to reality to make things uncomfortable. It's a fine line, but one that it only occasionally navigates successfully. The liberal and graphic violence is almost cartoonish, so that you find yourself laughing more than wincing.

In keeping with the film's aversion to subtlety, the main villain is Russian. Emil (Karel Roden), armed with a psychotic disposition and desire for notoriety and money, arrives in America along with his Czech partner Oleg (Oleg Taktarov), who himself is armed with a camera and an obsession with Frank Capra. However, the films Oleg plans to make are unlike anything his hero would direct. Within minutes of landing in New York Oleg has stolen a video camera and begins making his movie, a slightly conceived plot that involves filming everything, including Emil's brutal murder of two Russians who made the mistake of owing him money.

The deaths were witnessed by a Czech neighbour Daphne (Vera Farmiga) who then finds herself the quarry of Emil and Oleg. The charred remains of the victims attract the attention of fire investigator Jody Warsaw (Edward Burns) as well as the city's most celebrated cop, Eddie Fleming (Robert De Niro). Fleming has deliberately cultivated his media profile, saying the fame makes his job easier. He collaborates with the tabloid TV show Top Story and its unscrupulous host Robert Hawkins (Kelsey Grammer) in arranging to arrest people on camera. It's a ploy that has earned Fleming notoriety and the cover of People magazine.

Although fresh in the country, Emil knows the place very well. "I love America. No one is responsible for what they do". It's a theory he plans to exploit. While he continues his violent spree, Oleg continues filming. As Fleming closes in, in a chilling climax of their home movie, the hunter becomes the hunted.

Any country whose legal system rewards murderers and whose media's lust for violence and sensationalism supersedes its sense of social responsibility, is providing a large target for ridicule. It's a target that 15 Minutes hits accurately and often. However, because of the superficial nature of the characters and the film's propensity to go over the top, it meant the ammunition it was using was less effective than it could have been.