The Interpreter review

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 is a rarity these days: a well made, smart drama with thoughtful characters that doesn't underestimate or pander to its audience. That it took someone who might be considered an old school director should not be dismissed. Clint Eastwood is proof, were more needed, that a director's talents are not diminished by age.

The Interpreter is evocative of an earlier era where such films had guts rather than glitz. Too often nowadays audiences are bludgeoned or dazzled rather than respected. Propelled by masterful performances by its two Oscar winning stars, the tension and crackle generated in the scenes between Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman is more combustible than any amount of pyrotechnics.

The intelligent screenplay by Steven Zallian, Scott Frank and Charles Randolph, based on a story by Martin Stellman and Brian Ward depicts the predicament of a United Nations interpreter Silvia Broome (Kidman), who overhears a conversation about the proposed assassination of a visiting leader. With her safety in jeopardy, she is assigned the protection of FBI agent Tobin Keller (Penn).

When Keller learns that the conversation was in a rare dialect known by only a few, including Broome, he becomes suspicious. Further investigation reveals Broome's connection with the threatened VIP, a fact that makes Keller start to doubt her innocence in the assassination plot. "I'm scared and my protector doesn't believe me," she shouts at Keller. Both characters operate on very different levels. Broome is a reasoned diplomat, Keller is more instinctual. Their acquaintance, one founded on uncertainty and mistrust, is buoyed by a sexual tension. Keller, still reeling from the recent death of his wife, is drawn to the enigmatic Broome.

Pollack negotiated personally with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for permission to film in New York's U.N. building. It is the first time it has ever been granted. Being such a critical location, its use adds a palpable degree of authenticity to the film, which climaxes with the visit of the African leader whose bloody régime had brought about the assassination threat.

The Interpreter balances skillfully the drama of its political tale with the absorbing personal connection. Either thread is sufficient to sustain the film, but together they make for a dense and gripping spectacle.