Review of The Interpreter (2005) by Christopher P — 30 Dec 2007

I have to say, I was very excited about seeing this film after viewing the previews. It starred two incredible actors (Sean Penn, Nicole Kidman) and was written/directed by veteran Oscar winning filmmaker Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa, Tootsie). I expected a sophisticated, thrilling and highly entertaining political drama, and I got kind of half that. About 50% of 'The Interpreter' is entertaining and suspenseful, and the other 50% is tedious and on the brim of being flat out boring. The film was very sophisticated in the way the dialogue and plot turns carried themselves, but not nearly enough to get us intrigued. The film seems to promise an always thrilling political conspiracy game, but we get mostly long conversations between Penn and Kidman about pointless subjects not having to do with the assassination attempt. I felt kind of cheated by that.

The film revolves around a South African interpreter for the U.N., Sylvia (Kidman) who one day is up in her booth doing work after hours. She accidentally listens in to a conversation in an African dialect probably ten or less people in the United States understand. The conversation revolves around killing the president of their nation, Zawanie. Sylvia reports this to the C.I.A. and agents Keller (Penn) and Woods (Catherine Keener) check into her statement to see if it's actually true, and if it is to get information out of her and put her under witness protection from the African assassins that try to get to her, after she's discovered as having heard the discussion of President Zawanie's future murder. This leads to a bunch of interesting moments in the storyline, but also leads to some dead-ends.

There are many things 'The Interpreter' doesn't explain or takes too long or too short explaining for the film to flow smoothly. If I was hard pressed to say, I'd speculate that the interesting scenes outweigh the tedious scenes by a tad. To explain it more clearly, when 'The Interpreter' is boring, it's so boring you probably will dose off, and when 'The Interpreter' is interesting, it's so interesting you'll be on the edge of your seat in anxiety and suspense. The acting is very good, both Penn and Kidman give incredible performances, especially Penn who provides us with a deeply-layered emotionally scared work-a-holic who transitions into a better person when he's around Sylvia (Kidman's character). Catherine Keener does a fine job as always (it's a shame such a great actress is limited to supporting roles most of the time), and the director of the film, Sydney Pollack, has a short role as Sean Penn's boss. The directing of the film is consistently engrossing, but the writing has it's ups and downs. The screenplay is laced with intelligent dialogue, but it always seems to drag in certain places. I think Pollack could have thought this out more, and that's the most frustrating thing about watching this movie -- knowing it's good, but it could be so much better. In the end, it turns out to be more of a love story then a political thriller. Many will be angered and/or disappointed with this because the movie trailers don't present a clear picture of what the film is really all about. I should have taken the hint when pretty much all of the movie previews before 'The Interpreter' began showing were chick flicks.

In conclusion, the film doesn't even live up to half it's potential. This could have been the best film of the year thus far, but I guess Pollack and I have different views on what makes a political thriller work. I was expecting a shot of adrenaline and got a shot of estrogen. If you go see 'The Interpreter' in the theaters, make sure you see all the other movies you wan't to see beforehand. I barely recommend it based on the two great lead performances. Grade: B- (screened at AMC Deer Valley 30, Phoenix, Arizona, 4/24/05).