Film Review: The Interpreter (2005) C+

Date Viewed: 11/05/07
Venue: HD-DVD

I shouldn't like The Interpreter as much as I do. But that's still not to say I like it a whole lot. In fact, it's a fairly mediocre thriller with some decent star power (Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman), a reputable director (Sydney Pollack), and a sweeping international conspiracy. On paper, this film should bore the pants off me, but instead I find it a mild misfire.

Nicole Kidman plays an interpreter at the United Nations in New York who accidentally overhears a plot to assasinate a soon-to-be-visiting African warlord. Sean Penn is the damaged-soul (still getting over the recent death of his wife) Secret Service agent assigned to protect the visiting warlord. He investigates her story but is suspicious when she is less than forthcoming about her own African past. Together they unravel the assasination conspiracy, only to find she's more involved in ways no one (including herself) could've guessed.

There are three major pitfalls that keep The Interpreter from being a legitimately good flick. The first of which is a significant lack of chemistry between its leads. The story (thankfully) doesn't call for them to fall into love, but a certain affection does arise. However, Kidman and Penn keep things pretty chilly throughout, with Penn playing the 'tortured cop' routine too close to the vest. Pitfall Number Two involves a common misstep; not letting the audience know what the protagonist wants. While you can certainly argue that Penn and Kidman are sort of co-main-characters, it's Kidman who we mostly follow in the film's first half. But we the audience are deliberately withheld information about her. We aren't told what she wants, and we aren't privy to the sum of her involvement in the whole affair until much later in the film, which makes it rather hard to be on her side and into the storyline. And for Pitfall Number Three, we've got a case of the 'not-so-high stakes.' Sure an assasination inside the U.N. building would be a Bad Thing, but the screenplay goes to quite a bit of effort to explain that this warlord guy is a bad, genocidal dude. So why should we care if he's killed?

Now after all that, I should've really disliked this film. But there are a few small things that despite all the flaws, kept me interested. The film is beautifully shot, nothing overdone, but simply elegant and confident. I also applaud director Pollack for the overall tone. This is a serious, adult, film, with characters that at least attempt to be three-dimensional. Also, this was the first film ever to be allowed to shoot inside the actual U.N. building, and this does nothing but great assist the authenticity and already strong atmosphere.

With some better star chemistry, some script-level character help, and higher stakes, The Interpreter could've been a first-rate thriller. I know that sounds like it needed a lot of work, but even in such disrepair, it's a lot closer to respectability that many films of its genre.