Friday, April 22, 2005 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Movie Review: 'The Interpreter'

Tough to Understand: 'The Interpreter' features Oscar-winning leads, director and co-writer, yet offers questionably few thrills

In "The Interpreter," United Nations translator Silvia Broome (Nicole Kidman) overhears an ominous threat against a controversial leader.

What's in a name? When the name of the movie is "The Interpreter," more -- and less -- than meets the eye.

A contemporary political thriller with class and sporadic smarts, "The Interpreter" benefits from the presence of two Academy Award-winning stars -- Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn -- under the assured direction of another Oscar-winning veteran, Sydney Pollack.

Pollack, of course, knows his way around the thriller, having demonstrated his ease and expertise with pulse-pounders as different as 1975's "Three Days of the Condor" and 1993's "The Firm."

And while "The Interpreter" takes place in a thoroughly contemporary world clouded by genocide and terrorism, the movie also boasts a few refreshingly old-fashioned attributes.

Chief among them: an attention to character (and character development) that makes "The Interpreter" more than just a jigsaw-puzzle movie preoccupied with the mechanics of fitting its pieces together.

It's a good thing, too, because "The Interpreter" displays such dismaying disregard for logic and momentum at its climax, it almost cancels out everything good that's gone before.

Almost, but not quite.

Some movies generate such breakneck tension that you don't notice the lapses in logic until later. "The Interpreter" is not one of those movies.

It unfolds with deliberate speed -- and sometimes no speed at all. All the better to focus on the characters and the potential cobweb of conspiracy that ties them together.

In one corner: United Nations translator Silvia Broome (Kidman), a native of the strife-torn (not to mention fictional) African nation of Matobo, ruled by a rebel-turned-tyrant suspected of genocide.

Trying to avoid an international trial for his alleged crimes against humanity, Matoban strongman Edmund Zuwanie (Earl Cameron) plans to address the United Nations directly.

In the opposite corner: Secret Service agent Tobin Keller (Sean Penn), part of a security detail assigned to protect Zuwanie.

That assignment assumes even greater importance when Silvia reports that she's overheard a death threat against Zuwanie -- in Ku, the language of Matobo.

Initially, Agent Keller seems suspicious of Silvia's story -- and her motives. Then again, Keller's a bit preoccupied these days as he tries to deal with personal trauma by burying himself in work.

Thus "The Interpreter" sets up its gripping central dynamic. As the idealistic Silvia and the skeptical, practical Keller size each other up, they discover that they share more than they ever suspected -- and care more than they ever expected.

Fortunately, the movie steers clear of potentially goopy conventional romance, concentrating instead on the subtle but intense bond that develops between the movie's walking wounded.

Besides, they're more preoccupied with unraveling a conspiracy involving a host of potential suspects, from Zuwanie's chilly security chief (Denmark's Jesper Christensen, making his Hollywood debut) to a French photographer ("My Wife Is an Actress' " director and star, Yvan Attal) from Silvia's shadowy past.

And when things get too tense, Keller's on-the-spot partner, Dot (the invaluable Catherine Keener), provides reliable backup, whether it's a timely tip or a sardonic quip.

It's usually a bad sign when a movie has three screenwriters -- even when two of them are "Schindler's List" Oscar-winner Steven Zaillian and Scott Frank, whose killer thriller credentials range from "Out of Sight" to "Minority Report." (The third member of this triumvirate, Charles Randolph, has exactly one previous credit. Unfortunately, it's the dismal anti-capital punishment drama "The Life of David Gale.")

With Pollack at the controls, however, "The Interpreter" rolls along much more smoothly than you might expect.

Pollack even manages to guide the movie into hallowed Alfred Hitchcock-style territory from time to time -- especially during a virtuoso sequence that puts multiple characters, some with conflicting motives, aboard a New York City bus bound for trouble.

A marvel of streamlined visual storytelling and incisive editing, it's easily the tautest, tightest, most tension-wracked sequence in the movie -- and worthy of a better one than "The Interpreter" turns out to be.

For all its impressive location logistics -- Pollack convinced Secretary-General Kofi Annan to allow filming inside the U.N. -- "The Interpreter" often seems too restrained and polite for its own good.

After all, a thriller -- even a thoughtful, character-driven one -- needs genuine thrills to retain its grip on the audience. And if that's too much to ask, a thriller needs sympathetic characters brought to life by equally engaging actors.

It's hardly a shock to report that Kidman and Penn are up to the task. Kidman infuses her character with a guarded steeliness, ably conveying the anguish that fuels it, while Penn dials down his trademark ferocity to capture wary, world-weary resignation.

Along with the tiniest flicker of hope that, just this once, he can keep a dangerous, pitiless world from being what it is.

The power of their performances makes their characters credible -- and compelling -- even when "The Interpreter" isn't.