Nicole Kidman in the Interpreter

UN drama falls flat
The Interpreter
Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn

Rating: 3

Sydney Pollack’s latest political thriller with a romantic subplot is a combined effort of the brilliant director and his strong leading cast to rescue an inspired but flawed screenplay.

The Interpreter is set in the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where translater Silvia Broome (Kidman) overhears a plan to assassinate the President of Maboto, a fictional strife-torn African country. Secret Service agent Tobin Keller (Penn), called in to investigate the threat and protect the foreign leader, questions Ms Broome’s honesty and motives while she becomes increasingly afraid for her own life.

There are some interesting moments – one of the film’s most intense scenes has all the major players converging on an inner city bus – but there are also some basic drawbacks that have more to do with the screenplay (by Charles Randolph and Scott Frank) than the acting or directing.

The characters are flat and it takes all the acting prowess of two of modern cinema’s best performers to breath life into them.

Penn has it particularly rough trying to make something of the hardtalkin’ hard-drinkin’ cop stereotype he’s been lumped with, and it’s a testament to his abilities that he manages to give the character any presence at all. The Interpreter is a good movie, but it’s not a great movie.

The combination of Pollack, Kidman and Penn could have produced much more if a little more thought had been put into the characters.

– PTE John Wellfare