'The Interpreter' - The Middletown Journal

'The Interpreter': Three-fourths excellence, one-fourth implausibility

By ERIC ROBINETTE
The Middletown Journal

Because "The Interpreter" is smarter than the average movie, it's tempting to overrate the film despite its sillier-than-average ending.

For most of its length, the movie feels like a breath of fresh air amid the pollutants of dumb comedies, dim horror movies and big-budget disappointments that have stunk up 2005's movie roster so far, and will no doubt infect the summer lineup as well. It's a smart, captivating political thriller with sharp direction from Sydney Pollack, strong acting from Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn, and mostly smart writing by Charles Randolph, Scott Frank and Steve Zaillian.

Universal Studios

'The Interpreter'

B+

The verdict: A smart political thriller that entertains even though it sheds the suspense toward the end.

Director: Sydney Pollack
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn, George Harris, Catherine Keener
Run time: 128 minutes
Release date: April 22, 2005
Rating: PG-13 for violence, some sexual content and brief strong language.
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I say mostly because in the third act, the script flies off the rails. I can't be too specific lest I spoil the climax, except to say that for all the peril that is caused, the ending ranges from pat to ludicrous. Until that point, however, the movie holds together remarkably well, especially considering the script went through as many as three rewrites.

Kidman plays Sylvia Broome, a United Nations interpreter. She overhears a plot to assassinate the widely hated president of her country, the fictional African nation Matobo. As it happens, this president will shortly be at the United Nations to address the General Assembly, where the assassins intend to carry out their plot.

The Secret Service agent assigned to the case, Tobin Keller (Penn) is suspicious for two reasons. One, Sylvia herself is suspect because she was once a gun-toting revolutionary, and the president was responsible for killing her family. Second, Tobin is still strung out over the recent tragic death of his wife. The actors' subtle but powerful performances make their characters' relationship compelling, preventing it from sliding into a cliched romance, though an attraction is suggested.

Pollack's authenticity also goes a long way toward making "The Interpreter" convincing. He scored a major coup by gaining permission to film inside the United Nations, something that not even the great Alfred Hitchcock could manage for his classic, "North by Northwest." Pollack, who made the well-regarded political thriller "Three Days of the Condor," also shows directorial muscle he hasn't flexed in years, particularly in an outstanding sequence with nail-biting cross-cutting among Secret Service agents trying to follow a man with a bomb. The Master would have been proud.

Such powerful moments make me wish "The Interpreter" had been able to sustain that suspense instead of seriously straining credibility at the end. All the same, I'll take three-fourths of excellence and one-fourth of implausibility instead of the reverse that too many movies deliver.