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Rated R; running time of 128 minutes
Genre: Thriller
Written By: Charles Randolph, Scott Frank, Steven Zaillian
Directed by: Sydney Pollack
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, Jesper Christensen, Yvan Attal, Earl Cameron, George Harris, Michael Wright, Maz Jobrani, Eric Keenleyside
y
WARNING- SPOILERS BELOW.
The Digest
Silvia Broome (Nicole Kidman) lives a fairly mundane life as an interpreter for the UN. The only splash of excitement in her life seems to be the fact that she plays the flute. Beyond that, day in and day out is spent in the UN building translating French and her native African language. Due to a glitch in the metal detector, the entire building is evacuated. Silvia comes back late that night to retrieve her belonging when she happens upon a clandestine conversation in her native tongue. The hurried whispers discuss making sure that "he" doesn't make it out of New York alive. She is seen , but doesn't fear for her life until later. It is only the next day when she learns that the President of her country is coming to town, does she realize that President Edmond Zuwanie is the "he" the men were talking about.
Silvia at that point reports what she heard. Secret Service agents are called in to determine if this is really a plot to kill Zuwanie or if Silvia is off her rocker.
Enter Secret Service agents Tobin Keller (Sean Penn) and Dot Woods (Catherine Keener). They have been tasked with determining what exactly is going on. Tobin is emotionally raw. We know that something is going on at home, but we're not exactly sure. Whatever it is, he has been on leave for a few weeks and he has been getting drunk.
At first, he doesn't believe a word that comes out of Silvia's mouth. A background check shows that she has been supportive of Zuwanie's rival and that she has been a political protester. Maybe she is just making it up to help get Zuwanie over thrown, he thinks. Until there is an attempt on her life. Then Tobin starts to become less skeptical of Silvia and thinks that maybe, just maybe, there is some truth to her story and if so, how are they going to protect someone how doesn't want protection.
The Dish
First let me get this off of my chest - I'm tired of seeing "Evil Africans" movies. Are African's the new communist? I mean good lord, every time I turn around some movie has dark skinned people acting a fool. Now this does not include movies that are depicting true events. I mean movies that just make shit up. Pardon my French, but I'm a little annoyed.
That said, this was not the sin of "Interpreter". This was a plot, that had it been executed properly, could have been the best political thriller made in a long time. But missing was the intrigue, the edge of your seat thrills, the major plot twist that you don't see coming. I didn't really feel for Nicole. She had so much lose and tragedy in her life, but she just didn't move me. And I must say that as happy as I was to see Michael Wright working again, I could have done without his character. That part of the plot was as clear as mud. I understood what he was supposed to do, but I don’t know why he was supposed to do it.
There were two things that saved this movie from being a complete disaster - Catherine Keener and Sean Penn. Catherine was the comedic relief with her rye delivery and even Sean Penn didn't take himself too seriously which was refreshing.
Other than that, I could have done without this movie. Really. It's one of those movies i will struggle to remember the plot of in about 6 months. Ad that's too bad, because it had such potential.
The Directive
Honestly? You can just wait for the video to come out. You ain't missing anything.
Boring in any language.
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Copyright Kamal "The Diva" Larsuel-Ulbricht, 2005
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