'The Interpreter' brings timely thrills to screen

Besides harnessing the mega-star power/Oscar clout of Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn and the directorial skills of Sydney Pollack, “The Interpreter” manages another major accomplishment. For the first time in its 60-year history, the United Nations allowed a film crew to have access to its buildings. This fact might seem irrelevant at first, especially in this day of “we can do anything with digital effects,” but it adds a sense of realism to this film which would have been unattainable with even the best set design and digital wizardry.

While director Pollack -– who made the political thriller “Three Days of the Condor” – benefits greatly from the added realism and the beautifully crisp cinematography of Darius Khondji, he hedges his bets in other places. Rather than adding even more realism by incorporating a real world country (Zimbabwe?) and a recognizable political figure (Robert Mugabe?) into the script, Pollack opts for a mythical land, leader and even language.

This criticism may be nit-picking, though, because “The Interpreter” is a good film with great performances from its entire cast. It doesn’t pander to the usual Hollywood conventions of its genre. There’s not an overabundance of typical action/thriller scenes, and there’s not a great amount of sexual spark between Penn and Kidman.

But the facts are: The geopolitical climate has been on the minds of us all lately and the U.N. – whether for Kofi Annan’s “oil for food scandal” or President Bush’s appointment of John Bolton – has garnered its share of international notice.

Pollack’s timing in making “The Interpreter” is impeccable.

The film opens with a brutal assassination of two people in the (fictional) country of Matobo. The scene happens quickly, but the events are crucial to the remaining two hours of the film. In other words, even if you have to nix the refreshments, don’t miss the first few minutes.

The leader of Matobo is Edmund Zuwanie (Earl Cameron). He is nicknamed “The Teacher.” The Teacher began his rule as a revolutionary idealist, but as often noted, power corrupts. Zuwanie is now blamed for the unbridled corruption and genocide taking place in Matobo.

In order to placate the rest of the world, Zuwanie has insisted on coming to the U.N. and speaking before the General Assembly.

Silvia Broome, played by Nicole Kidman with a slight hint of a South African accent, is an interpreter at the U.N. She specializes in the Ku language, the dialect of her native country, which happens to be Matobo. Through a curious happenstance (there are a few in “The Interpreter”) she is at work after hours and overhears a plot to assassinate Zuwanie when he is to speak at the U.N.

She contacts the authorities, though not immediately. This, too, is an important plot point.

Given the job of investigating are two secret service agents, Tobin Keller (Penn) and his partner Dot Woods (Catherine Keener). Penn executes the role of Keller, who has just lost his wife, with a world-weary manner that rings completely true. Keener is a sadly underused actress who has never turned in a bad performance.

Keller doesn’t trust Silvia. The deeper the authorities dig, the more the audience suspects her as well.

These suspicions – and the finesse with which the actors convey and relate to them – are what make “The Interpreter” work.

Silvia’s past is sketchy. The authorities have obtained pictures of her in Matobo. She’s surrounded by revolutionaries and carrying a rifle.

We learn that a landmine killed her mother, father and sister some years ago. Her brother may still be involved with a group trying to dethrone Zuwanie.

The fact that it was Silvia, and only Silvia, who overheard the alleged assassination plot seems too coincidental to Keller.

Other motives may be in play. An attempted assassination might be as politically useful to the alleged target as a real assassination would be to his enemies.

In Act 3 of “The Interpreter,” the action is ramped up and the intricacies of the plot start getting, well, intricate. For those who have gotten used to thrillers having little more substance than big bombs, gunfire, special effects, loud music and plots executed at a lowest-common-denominator level, stories that go to the depths of this one may require a second viewing to make complete sense.

Thankfully, Pollack is wise enough not to tack on a typical Hollywood ending. While romantic sparks don’t exactly fly between the lead actors, that’s not to say that emotional sparks do not. Kidman and Penn convey this fact with the chops of the fine actors they are. When their characters find themselves at the end of their brief encounter, things happen much as they would in the real world.

“The Interpreter” has found its place and time much in the same way that “All the President’s Men,” “Three Days of the Condor” and “The Manchurian Candidate” did.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.

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