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THE INTERPRETER Send This Review to a Friend
With Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn cast in a film, the artistic battle is half won, but the other half depends on a good screenplay and good direction. Sydney Pollack certainly knows how to direct. It’s the writing that leaves dissatisfaction as the plot of “The Interpreter” is worked out to an unbelievable conclusion after a lot that was unbelievable along the way.
The screenplay, written by Charles Randolph, Scott Frank and Steven Zaillian, based on a story by Martin Stellman and Brian Ward (too many cooks), involves Silvia Broome (Kidman), a super-cool United Nations interpreter who we suspect early on as someone involved in more than translations. What she overhears triggers security into action to prevent a threatened assassination of the head of a mythical African country. He’s going to make a speech at the UN to defend himself against charges that he is guilty of human rights violations. Penn plays Keller, a security officer who is grieving for his wife, recently killed in an auto accident. Keller’s assistant is played pleasantly enough by Catherine Keener in a fairly thankless role.
We discover that Silvia has had a past in the African country that has gone from promised democracy into oppression. A black woman with such ties might have made more sense, but let’s face it, movies are considered to have more charisma with a star like Kidman. Pollack is good at all the action stuff, including scenes at the UN, shots of New York, street chases, an explosion and the like. He also uses attractive close-ups of Kidman and Penn to make us think potential romance. Kidman is fantastically photogenic, as always, and Penn’s face is ruggedly handsome. Will anything happen between them? That’s not the point of the film, but the potential holds interest.
The back story of African politics gets complicated, but it is essentially one of promise and betrayal, with people paying a price in the resulting slaughter. The film makes a pass at standing for human rights. But it is really just an entertainment aspiring to be a thriller.
Hitchcock frowned on those he called “the plausibles,” people who always want to poke holes in a story instead of concentrating on suspense. But in “The Interpreter” there isn’t enough solid suspense to get over the far-fetched nature of the way the plot is worked out. The tale is only moderately compelling if one makes allowances and the ending brings a letdown. That’s not good. A Universal Pictures release.
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