Answers

Director Christian Ramirez adapts Tom Topor’s play, Answers, into a tense interrogation thriller set inside an interrogation room, zeroing in on a suspect dragged into a murder he swears he didn’t do. Ramirez wastes no time locking us inside that claustrophobic room, where every question hits hard, and each hesitation reveals every cruel intention.

Two detectives interrogate a man they believe is connected to a string of murders—a suspect who insists his name is Bruce and not Byron. Frank (John Salandria) leads the questioning as his partner Ed (Garret Ryan) interjects, pressing the suspect (Byron Vasquez Jr.) on why he looks so much like the man they’re looking for. Despite Bruce’s repeated denials, the detectives treat him as evasive and burdened with a troubled past.

As the interrogation continues, Frank and Ed walk Bruce through the known details surrounding the death of “his” latest victim (Cassie Carpenter). Bruce claims he was asleep, but he cannot confirm it. When the detectives lay out the specific gory details of the killing, Bruce becomes visibly shaken, but the detectives believe the suspect may know more than he’s admitting. With no apparent breakthrough, the detectives resort to a final strategy: a rapid-fire series of questions delivered on tape, wearing Bruce down to respond under pressure.

“…two detectives interrogate a man they believe is connected to a string of murders…”

Producer Byron Vasquez Jr. said the film originated from his longtime desire to produce Tom Topor’s play Answers, a piece he’d been wanting to stage for fifteen years since first reading it. When no theater company would take on the project, Vasquez Jr. decided to bring it to the screen. Vasquez Jr. was immensely grateful for Topor’s willingness to grant him adaptation rights with a personal boost by sharing a character name with the suspect.

It’s the film’s theme that stood out to me—the idea of truth and justice. Not so long ago (had it ever ended), it was more critical that district attorneys secured convictions… more confessions… by any means necessary, regardless of the truth. Innocent men and women were physically and mentally worn down until they were ultimately talked into confessing to the crime they didn’t commit. Answers shows many examples of how this happened.

Director Christian Ramirez gives Tom Topor’s script the noir treatment, setting it in a seedy detective’s office with dark tones surrounding our poor sap. My only criticism is that I would have preferred a straight, gritty drama. I think the film’s tone gets a bit too comedic at times, but that’s just a matter of taste. Still, it’s a powerful, thoughtful piece.