Review of The Interpreter (2005) by Ola G — 09 Jan 2011

U.N. interpreter Silvia Broome (Nicole Kidman) alleges that she has overheard a death threat against, Edmond Zuwanie (Earl Cameron) the head of the African state Matobo, Silvia´s birth country. She findes herself placed under the protection of federal agent Tobin Keller (Sean Penn) and his partner Dot Woods (Catherine Keener). As Keller digs deeper into his eyewitnesses' past and her secretive world of global connections, the more suspicious he becomes that she herself might be involved in the conspiracy. With every step of the way, he finds more reasons to mistrust her. Is Sylvia a victim? A suspect? Or something else entirely? And can Tobin, coping with his own personal heartache, keep her safe?

This is a not too shabby political thriller from Sydney Pollack, drawing parallels to Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe. I reckon "The Interpreter" started off a bit slowpaced and boring, but the intensity of the story was gradually sped up and developed the movie into an intriguing and solid story. Nicole Kidman is ok, Sean Penn is ok. And the fact that there´s real parallels to what has happend in Zimbabwe gave proper life to the movie. I was positively surprised by "The Interpreter".