Good grist for the mind of the armchair detective.
Words like "taut," "gripping" and "tense" are generally associated with thrillers because they describe a tightly woven plot and the barrage of twists designed to keep you guessing and foil a jaded audience's popcorn-Sherlock skills right up to the climax. Sydney Pollack's
The Interpreter
is a conventional thriller in this way, which is not to say it's
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bad-the film is a fast-paced and engrossing affair that is a welcome addition to the genre. Thrillers have seen decades of plot twists come and go, leaving
movie goers typically knowing what to expect: people and situations aren't what they seem, someone unexpected will be the bad guy, the con-somewhere-is on. Not much shocks these days, but that there's still fun to be had. We may already know where we're going, but it's how we get there that's the kick.
The film is the story of a UN interpreter named Silvia Broome (Nicole Kidman) who overhears a whispered discussion about an assassination attempt on controversial African dignitary Edmond Zuwanie (Earl Cameron) who is visiting the UN. After reporting the conversation to the authorities, Broome becomes essential in the investigation by Foreign Dignitary Protection agents Tobin Keller (Sean Penn) and Dot Woods (Catherine Keener), the agents in charge of protecting Zuwanie. Doing what she can to help, Broome's past soon becomes the subject of much speculation and her involvement goes deeper than we're lead to believe.
Everything happens fast from the moment the credits begin-plot points and characters are introduced with little explanation before moving on to the next phase of the set up. This seemingly (wink, wink) disconnected series of scenes creates a sense of tangible suspense that hangs over nearly every scene during the early part of the film. It's an edge-of-your-seat technique that whips the audience into a frenzy and immediately hooks viewers into the film's plot. After the set-up has been established, we begin to learn more about Broome's mysterious past and the pacing slows to a steady, teeth-gnashing simmer.
Kidman delivers a skillful and measured performance that matches her co-star Penn in subdued intensity, carrying with
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her the burden of Broome's past but keeping it buried just below the surface.
Keener (
Being John Malkovich
) is sadly underused but manages to make the most of her performance as Penn's partner. Pollack's unprecedented access to the UN facility in New York lends the film an air of authenticity lacking in many political thrillers.
A romance between the two leads seems an inevitable plotline that might jeopardize the carefully built suspense, but thankfully Pollack and his team of writers (whose credits include
Minority Report
and
Gangs of New York
) seem to sense this and limit Penn and Kidman's characters to implied possibility. Pollack allows his characters' relationship to grow rather than simply sending them straight to bed. Again, this process slows down the frantic pace of the film's beginning and allows the audience to process all the information it's been hit with and begin to enjoy the personal Baker Street fantasies ripe for the plucking in this successful take on the "whodunit" political thriller.
