By Paul Tatara
CNN Reviewer

(CNN) -- Richard Linklater's "Tape" is basically a one-act play shot on digital video in a single room, with Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, and (thankfully) Uma Thurman constructing, deconstructing, and reconstructing the elusive concepts of truth and perception. Like several of Linklater's movies, it's the kind of thing that would work just fine in a 30 minute dose, but gets on your nerves at feature length -- especially if you've graduated from junior college.

This time, the faux mind-blowing dissertation is based on a play by Stephen Belber. But it sports the same "aren't we deep" vibe that weakens such intermittently engaging Linklater-penned films as "Slacker" and "Before Sunrise."

"Tape" is set in a Lansing, Michigan, hotel room, where two old high school buddies, Vince (Hawke) and John (Leonard), meet for a long evening of reminiscence and confrontation. When Vince is waiting for John to show up, he chugs a couple beers, yelps for no apparent reason, and does elevated push-ups. Let that be a warning: Hawke gives one of the busiest, most annoying performances of the year. Vince, who sells drugs for a living, is the designated provocateur, which allows Ethan the opportunity to carry on like a childish twit. There's little depth or believability to what he's doing; his acting prowess runs parallel to his pretend mustache.

Leonard fares better as John, a fledgling director who's in town for the Lansing Film Festival. He thinks he's just dropping by to catch up with an interested friend, but he's in for a very nasty surprise. After several rounds of generic belittlement, Vince brings out the big guns. Back in high school, Vince went out with a girl named Amy (Thurman.) She never slept with him, but, in an ill-defined fit of passion, she did find the time to sleep with John.

But that's only part of Vince's trouble with his old pal. John once admitted to Vince that he had "rough sex" with Amy that night. Vince wants him to come right out and say it was rape. After a screaming argument, John finally admits that, yes, he did rape Amy, and he's haunted by it.

At this point, there's a plot twist that the producers don't want revealed. It does it's job, upping the ante considerably. Then Thurman shows up.

Amy is now a Lansing District Attorney, and she's hesitant about entering into a conversation that includes John. Thurman's scenes are the only ones with genuine emotional impact; this is one of her better performances. Amy is a victim who may finally have a chance to confront her attacker, and Thurman's expressive eyes convey a personalized, silent anguish. Or do they?

That's about the only question that holds any interest in "Tape." The banter isn't sharp enough to drive the story, and Linklater's lack of visual elegance is a major hindrance. Though he has his strengths as a writer, he often seems at a loss as to where to place the camera. He over-compensates throughout "Tape" by jumping here, there, and everywhere with little concern for how the shots will play logically or emotionally.

No filmmaker should have to cut four times to show Ethan Hawke shotgunning a Heineken. But Linklater does, so you can only imagine how he handles the rest of the picture. His favorite ploy is to wildly swing a single shot back and forth between two people while they argue, until you feel like you're watching a tennis match. He would have been wise to study the restraint of such do-it-yourself French auteurs as Francois Truffaut and Eric Rohmer before undertaking this project.

You have to applaud Linklater's willingness to do something risky -- Wouldn't it be nice if more directors tried to challenge themselves? -- but you also have to critique what's on the screen. An honorable attempt is not the same as a good film, no matter how barren the cultural landscape. Maybe next time Linklater will quit flinging that camera around and conjure something with real meat on its bones.

There's bad language, drug use, and discussion of rape in "Tape." You'd probably be better off checking out Linklater's other current release, "Waking Life." That one suffers even more from a "heavy" concept, but at least a team of talented computer artists doodled over the images.