Movie Title: “THE INTERPRETER”
RATING: (OUT OF )
Review by Ranju Anthony
United States, 2005
Running Length: 128 Mins
Censor Board Certification: A
Language: English
Genre: Thriller
(Wide Release)
Director: Sydney Pollak
Production Team: Tim Bevan, Kevin Misher & Eric Fellner
Screenplay: Charles Randolph and Scott Frank
Cinematography: Darius Khondji
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, Earl Cameron and George Harris
Music: James Newton Howard
As a political thriller, the latest offering from Sydney Pollak bangs right on the target. Silvia (Nicole Kidman) is the main protagonist who has spent her entire life in Matobo, an insignificant African country. It’s shown that she lost her parents and only sister in a wrecking landmine while she was still young. Her latest assignment with the United Nations takes her to New York where she works as a translator. It’s during this period that Matobo’s acting President Edmond Zuwanie (Earl Cameron) comes to the UN in New York for a speech to clear his name off the political turmoil amounting due to his alleged human rights violations during his tenure boiling in his home country. Among all this, late one evening, Silvia comes back to her office to collect her belongings and overhears a conversation between couple of men who plan to assassinate the subject President Zuwanie. On being watched the hit men try to apprehend her but she escapes somehow. Tobin Keller (Sean Penn) and Dot Woods (Catherine Keener), two officials from CIA are summoned to investigate her story. Initially hesitant, Tobin finally believes her story and protects her from unseen danger. But there are many twists and turns to keep you hooked and Silvia remains a mystery for a good portion of the movie.
Quite unbelievable, but Nicole Kidman is actually not in the best of her forms, and Sean Penn easily overshadows her in every frame whenever and wherever he is around. The chemistry is somewhat missing or rather absurdly superficial. The rest of the cast deliver an ordinary fare.
But there is more to this thriller than being just a winking suspenseful story. Overtly complex questions like the inexorableness of vengeance, the moral convictions required to undertake a revenge and the morality play vis-à-vis the value of the revenge are also addressed albeit in a lighter vein. One always tend to analyze any motion picture in a deeper perspective that stars the great Sean Penn and he again triumphantly shows why he is rated as the best in this business.
I would like to underline the fact that there’s nothing great about the script; which is actually pedestrian and with any lesser crew members, this project could have directly gone to the cable/DVD circuit as another B grade flick. But thanks to a great star cast and an exceptional director, the movie should do great business both in the US and overseas banking primarily on Ms Kidman’s popularity.