THE INTERPRETER

Sydney Pollack returns to the land of thrillers with "The Interpreter" a timely, thought-provoking drama with a superb cast and an interesting premise. A little long-winded and sometimes confusing, “The Interpreter” benefits from solid performances by Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn & Catherine Keener. Thirty years after Sydney Pollack made the taut political thriller Three Days Of The Condor, the Oscar winning director returns to the same arena and repeats his success. "The Interpreter" has the distinction of being the first commercial movie to be filmed inside the United Nations building in New York City. The UN Charter prohibits commercial use of the building, but director Sydney Pollack was able to get permission to film from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the grounds that the film's themes support the UN mission. It helps that "The Interpreter" was able to film on location inside the UN, as that building's huge open spaces and natural light improve the film's aesthetics considerably and would have been impossible to recreate.

Stars Nicole Kidman as a United Nations interpreter named Silvia Broome, who is at the office late one night when she hears voices talking in a rare language known as Ku. The voices discuss a plot to assasinate the African dicatator named Zuwanie, inside the United Nations. Zuwanie, the dictator of Matobo, will be speaking to the General Assembly to defend his policies but many people see him as a murderer and many more people want him dead. Silvia reports the conversation she heard to the authorities and she has a handful Secret Service agents assinged to protect both her and Zuwanie (when he arrives in New York). Two of those agents include Tobin Keller (Sean Penn) and Dot Woods (Catherine Keener) and when Keller interrogates Silvia he thinks she is being vague about her past history in Zuwanie’s country of Matobo. Keller believes that Silvia is more involved in the assasination plot than she is letting on but their characters still develop a close friendship because both Silvia and Keller are tragic characters and feel an immediate bond. As the assassination date nears and more of Zuwanie’s detractors emerge from the woodwork, the plot thickens and a roller coaster ride of a movie ensues that is, from what I understand, thrilling for some and not so thrilling for others.
This is a classy thriller. The rather unlikely plot is grounded by solid performances throughout, Kidman and Penn doing a splendid job with their characters and Catherine Keener is fabulous as Penn’s sidekick. And much has been made of this being the first film that was allowed to be shot inside the UN itself. But once again it’s the reality outside the film that gives it backbone, the situation in Africa for many countries could be as depicted.

Director : Sydney Pollack
Writer : Charles Randolph,Scott Frank, Steven Zaillian
Stars : Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, Jesper Christensen, Earl Cameron
Genre : Thriller




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