The Interpreter Movie Review:


They really don't make 'em like this anymore: tightly wound thrillers with a political relevance that adds newsworthy urgency to the drama and suspense. You have to go back to the 1970s--All the President's Men, The Parallax View and Pollack's own Three Days of the Condor--to even come close. By comparison, today's best thrillers are mindless action movies.

Sylvia Broome (Kidman) is a UN interpreter who grew up in Matobo, an African country that descended into terrifying dictatorship after colonial rule ended. When she overhears an apparent plot to assassinate the Matobo president (Cameron) on his impending visit to New York, she becomes the centre of a Secret Service investigation, tailed by Agent Keller (Penn), who's experienced almost as much tragedy as Silvia has. But as the body count grows, it gets more complicated to figure out who's behind this plot.

Pollack directs this impeccably, building tension subtly until it erupts with startling ferocity. And the dramatic plot elements are even stronger, as two people with different outlooks on life are forced to find common ground. The film has the look of a classic--slick and sharp, full of attitude and personality, with expert cinematography by Darius Khondji and a resonant James Newton Howard score. And Pollack makes the most of his unprecedented access to actually film within the United Nations.

Meanwhile, Kidman and Penn have an astonishing chemistry that ripples with tension and emotion. Their scenes are raw and powerful, and it's to the filmmakers' credit that their dialog is relatively limited, avoiding banal plot exposition in lieu of deepening character intrigue. Red herrings abound, everyone is suspect, and we really care! Meanwhile, Keener shines as Keller's acerbic partner, adding a nicely world-weary tone to remind us that these people are just doing their jobs.

This film is so full of superb touches (like Silvia's vintage Vespa) that we can forgive its one moment of weakness: an overwrought climactic scene that barely crosses the line into silly, moralistic moviemaking. But this is an expertly made, grippingly old fashioned thriller that keeps us guessing, and squirming right to the end. As Silvia says, "Words are slower than guns. But they're better."



Rich Cline

Returning to her sound booth at the United Nations building, interpreter Silvia Broome (Kidman) overhears a plot to assassinate the leader of her home country, picked up by one of the microphones on the floor of the general assembly. Fearing for her life, she informs the authorities and Secret Service Agent Tobin Keller (Penn) is assigned to investigate but when he looks into the plot he discovers that person with the darkest past and the deepest secrets is the interpreter herself.

Political intrigue, assassination plots and characters that you don’t know whether you can trust are all the stalwarts of a great thriller but does ‘The Interpreter’ have the twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat?

Director Sydney Pollock returns to the thriller genre and has brought two of Hollywood’s hottest Oscar winning talents with him. With unprecedented access to the actual United Nation building in New York and using the great city as an exciting backdrop this is a movie that certainly looks and plays the part but does the story have what is takes to keep you enthralled? Yes and no.

The movie is a simmering potboiler that does take slightly too long to come to the boil. While this can be an advantage to the plot, as we have time to build character, tension and intrigue but there is something slightly too slow about the pace of the film. It just takes too long to get going, making the movie over long and could have done with ten or fifteen minutes cut out of it. The film does pick up midway through the second act however and this is when the plot and the characters really get a chance to shine.

Bringing the conspiracy to life are two Hollywood big hitters. Sean Penn is arguably one of the finest actors of his generation. He could be on screen reading his shopping list and you would be captivated. As Secret Service agent Tobin Keller he plays a character trying to recover from a momentous loss in his life. Throwing himself into work, Keller’s instincts take over and his investigation skills come to bear as he throws open a web of intrigue and political revelations that have profound ramifications. Penn portrays the character with his usual skill and presence, making him all the more watchable. Nicole Kidman has a go at another accent as African native interpreter Silvia Broome. She gets to play the screaming victim with a chequered past and to be fair she does make the role all the more watchable via a good performance. While some may say that she is one of Hollywood’s most talented actresses as she reinvigorated her career has splitting up with her superstar husband but she has a tendency for overplaying roles. Happily this isn’t one of those times and this character is watchable and believable.

‘The Interpreter’ is a real potboiler of a thriller that just takes a bit too much time simmering before boiling over. The performances of the two leads will keep you enthralled however, even though either of the roles never really pushes their Oscar winning talents to the maximum. With enough twists and turns to keep you guessing until the end, this is a thriller that does deliver but just not quickly enough.

Jamie Kelwick

Oh how the mighty and brilliant have fallen.

On paper, a political thriller starring Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn and directed by veteran director Sydney Pollack seems like a no-brainer.

The film follows Silvia Broome (Nicole Kidman), a young woman, who was born in the US but raised in the fictional African nation of Motobo, which could be Zimbabwe. Broome now works at the United Nations and specializes in African dialects.

During an after-hours session in the UN, Broome overhears a conversation about the plot to carry out the assassination of an African leader when he arrives to address the UN. The leader is the president of Motobo and he has been accused of mass genocide in his country.

When Broome reports her findings, Secret Service agents Tobin Kellar (Sean Penn) and Dot Woods (Catherine Keener) are called in to handle the case. As the agents look into Broome’s past and the president’s rivals, the plot thickens. Could Broome be lying and covering something up? Who is really behind the assassination? Who really is Silvia Broome?

“The Interpreter” is one of those kinds of movies that if you aren’t catapulted in by the central figure, you become lost in the void. The figure I had problems connecting with was Kidman’s interpreter. I never for one second bought the idea that she was the character. Her demeanor, cold exteriors, menacing glares and raspy hair added to the gel of the character but it never really holds.

Kidman is such a great actress but I have to wonder what has happened to her brilliance. I really thought that she was the first best actress winner in the last five years that wouldn’t let the rest of career suffer from performance auto-pilot.

After doing “The Hours”, “Dogville”, “The Human Stain” and “Cold Mountain” back to back she must have been creatively exhausted. And who can blame her. After witnessing “The Stepford Wives” and “The Interpreter”, the trend seems to continue into this summer’s “Bewitched” and the proposed “American Darlings” with Jennifer Lopez. With these films, are we witnessing the creative self-destruction of one of the great actresses working today? Possibly.

What could save her is that if her forth-coming films, “Emma’s War” and “Fur” pan out to their potential; we could see a bolder, stronger Nicole breaking free. So let’s hope so.

On the flipside, I did however enjoy the performance by Sean Penn who amazingly has found yet a new way to make grief believable on screen. He isn’t bold or over-the-top but restrained and haunted which seems like a mirror image to his Oscar winning role in “Mystic River”.

I couldn’t put my finger on it while I was watching the film but the dynamic between the two leads reminded me a lot of the hostage flick, “Proof of Life” with Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan. The lead actors aren’t allowed to fall in love with each other and the film gets utterly and distractingly hung up on that fact. The same goes here. There needed to be more sexual tension between Penn and Kidman. But since Penn doesn’t believe her from scene one, how can the audience?

This dynamic really bugged me.

I really think that this thriller suffers from its casting choices not its execution. If the film starred possibly Charlize Theron and maybe Denzel Washington with more sexual tension between the characters I think the film would have been oodles more interesting.

I liked Sydney Pollack’s slick direction and he has photographed his film extraordinarily well. The plot and story are really interesting and the script is even well executed. I was just really bugged by the film’s main star dynamic and Kidman’s auto-pilot performance.



So Says the Soothsayer

Dean Kish

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