Not too great !. Review on The Interpreter Movie

The Interpreter is a political intrigue thriller set mostly at the UN's Headquarters in New York. Silvia Broome interprets rare African dialects; upon returning to her workstation after hours one evening she hears a private conversation picked up inadvertently by the sound system. Realizing this may be a threat against an African head of state slated to speak before the General Assembly, she reports her secret to UN security. Enter agents Tobin Keller and Dot Woods assigned to investigate the threat credibility and take preventative action. It soon becomes apparent that Silvia is more than a pretty blond with a knack for foreign tongues. She's got an opaque history with the Dark Continent, but is she a conspirator or just a concerned citizen?

The Interpreter turns out to be a film that's far less than the sum of its parts; where is Robert Ludlam when you need him?. Two Academy Award winning stars with no chemistry or synergy between them competing for face time to deliver their lines. A unique and complex storyline that's contaminated with moralizing monologues about human rights violations in Africa and subliminal messages justifying the UN's good works. The story is filmed on location at the United Nations and is the perfect venue for this kind of thriller. The price of the movie ticket may also be less than the cost of an actual UN tour. The film is over before is starts, if you've seen the previews and can put together early clues, yet drones on for over two hours.

The Interpreter is a rare snoozer for Director Sidney Pollack who usually delivers. In Havana [1995] he mixed love and revolution with political rhetoric about Cuban dictator Juan Batista, and come up dry. Individually, both Kidman and Penn give good performances, but don't play well against each other. This film needs a romantic subplot but neither character is cast to do that. Silvia is up tight, sharp edged, distrustful and cold, although she is vulnerable. Tobin is mostly unemotional and remote. Only in the end is there a fleeting connection. The supporting cast is varied and extensive, never mind that Pollack casts himself in a small speaking role. Catherine Keener, one of my favorites, tends to be in slightly off beat movies, but here co-stars with Penn as a no nonsense secret service agent.

SPOILERS

1. Can someone explain me how the ''bad'', tall black man comes to board exactly the bus where Kidman and the opposition leader are? Too much of a coordination between the bus and the subway systems...

   
   




2. I have the same doubt as Penn: Sounds very illogic that 2 guys were conspiring about killing someone, inside the UN General Assembly, with some undefined microphone open, in a strange language, just in the same moment that the very only person that speaks such language came late to pick up something late.

   
   




3. Why did Kidman leave the shower open? After all, Penn didn't have a microphone in her bath...

   
   

okayish, watch it on DVD, not worth 15o bucks at a PVR