Wednesday, Jun. 30, 2010

Claudia, Interview with the Vampire

It was supposed to be a showcase of Hollywood heavyweights — Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt starring in an adaptation of a best-selling book directed by the Oscar-winning writer-director of The Crying Game. But it was 11-year-old Kirsten Dunst, whose credits included one bad movie (The Bonfire of the Vanities) and a single episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, who stole the show. Dunst plays Claudia, a vampire-child who never ages and has a limitless hunger for killing. Her transformation is as simple as it is disturbing. After Cruise's Lestat bites her, Claudia's face becomes stone-white, her hair morphs into a blond, curly mass and she utters what would become the movie's tagline: "I want some more." Claudia's joy at taking out humans, sometimes even entire families, is almost enough to counteract Cruise's overacting.