“The Interpreter” (Universal Pictures)
Nicole Kidman has become the “new” Meryl Streep. Just throw an accent or a new language at her and she can handle it brilliantly. For example, in her new film “The Interpreter” she lets some obscure African language flow off her tongue. Of course she could be speaking total junk and I wouldn’t have known the difference.
This ear for languages is crucial in her role of Silvia Broome, an interpreter at the United Nations. Sylvia is at the UN building late one night and overhears an assassination plot. It is being spoken in a language that only a few people at the UN could understand or translate, but Silvia knows it because she has spent many years living in Africa. How’s that for coincidence!
Silvia reports the supposed threat to the police and they in turn contact the Secret Service. In short time Tobin Keeler (Sean Penn) shows up to grill Silvia about the information. He doesn’t know whether to believe her or not.
The rest of the film is spent discussing African politics and waiting for the assassination attempt to take place. In the right hands a plot such as this could be riveting – think of the original “Manchurian Candidate” – but under the direction of Sydney Pollack the movie is slow and plodding.
My mind began to wander to non-movie related questions, like just how tall is Nicole Kidman And how short is Sean Penn In most of their scenes they are seated, and in the final one he is perched on a fence so he will be the same height as she.
I also began to review the plot even before the movie had ended and found gaping holes that were never filled in by anything but long-winded speeches. After you see it you will know what I mean.
Pollack tries for some suspense in a scene involving people on a bus. The question is supposed to be whether or not the bus is going to be blown up. Well watch the trailer for the film and you will see the answer to that one.
As a last quibble, Penn and Kidman’s characters are both supposedly damaged by tragedies in their lives. This is why they are supposed to connect. But the connection never comes to pass. They are as isolated from each other at the end of the movie as they were at the start – or at least that is the way it seemed to me.
In fairness to “The Interpreter” I have to say my wife thought she liked it until I started picking it apart. That’s what happens when you are married to a critic.
The movie is rated PG-13 for profanity and violence.
Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn in a movie directed by Sydney Pollack. It should be brilliant and electrifying. It isn’t. I guess with “The Interpreter” something got lost in translation.
I scored “The Interpreter” a garbled 5 out of 10.
