The Interpreter (2005)
Country: US/GER/GB
Technical: Technicolor/Panavision 128m
Director: Sydney Pollack
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, Yvan Attal
Synopsis:
The visit to the UN of the corrupt ruler of Matobo, a southern African country, is fraught with danger: his opponents are anxious lest he somehow justify the killing spree that is going on against his own people; the authorities in New York are concerned that he arrives and leaves safely so that their credibility is not undermined in the post-9/11 world. At the centre of these conflicting forces is a UN interpreter and Matoban national, whose brother and former lover have just been gunned down in a football stadium, and who overhears a suspicious conversation hinting at the likely assassination of the head of state when he makes his speech.
Review:
Sleek, fashionably complex thriller which sidelines conventional thriller heroics in the furtherance of character and political skullduggery. The coincidence at the heart of the screenplay is perhaps just too much, but is preferable to the unlikely, and chemistry-deprived, romantic interest to which it leads. In the end Pollack keeps things zipping along just fine and the film's a satisfying genre pic with impeccable production values and an ever-chameleon-like Kidman to admire.
Country: US/GER/GB
Technical: Technicolor/Panavision 128m
Director: Sydney Pollack
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, Yvan Attal
Synopsis:
The visit to the UN of the corrupt ruler of Matobo, a southern African country, is fraught with danger: his opponents are anxious lest he somehow justify the killing spree that is going on against his own people; the authorities in New York are concerned that he arrives and leaves safely so that their credibility is not undermined in the post-9/11 world. At the centre of these conflicting forces is a UN interpreter and Matoban national, whose brother and former lover have just been gunned down in a football stadium, and who overhears a suspicious conversation hinting at the likely assassination of the head of state when he makes his speech.
Review:
Sleek, fashionably complex thriller which sidelines conventional thriller heroics in the furtherance of character and political skullduggery. The coincidence at the heart of the screenplay is perhaps just too much, but is preferable to the unlikely, and chemistry-deprived, romantic interest to which it leads. In the end Pollack keeps things zipping along just fine and the film's a satisfying genre pic with impeccable production values and an ever-chameleon-like Kidman to admire.
Country: US/GER/GB
Technical: Technicolor/Panavision 128m
Director: Sydney Pollack
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, Yvan Attal
Synopsis:
The visit to the UN of the corrupt ruler of Matobo, a southern African country, is fraught with danger: his opponents are anxious lest he somehow justify the killing spree that is going on against his own people; the authorities in New York are concerned that he arrives and leaves safely so that their credibility is not undermined in the post-9/11 world. At the centre of these conflicting forces is a UN interpreter and Matoban national, whose brother and former lover have just been gunned down in a football stadium, and who overhears a suspicious conversation hinting at the likely assassination of the head of state when he makes his speech.
Review:
Sleek, fashionably complex thriller which sidelines conventional thriller heroics in the furtherance of character and political skullduggery. The coincidence at the heart of the screenplay is perhaps just too much, but is preferable to the unlikely, and chemistry-deprived, romantic interest to which it leads. In the end Pollack keeps things zipping along just fine and the film's a satisfying genre pic with impeccable production values and an ever-chameleon-like Kidman to admire.