nan | 楠木

The Interpreter, starring Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn, and from veteran director Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa, The Firm), is a fairly well-honed thriller with a few well-crafted characters.

Kidman stars as Silvia, an interpreter working at the UN. The plot setting is familiar – she accidentally stumbles upon an assassination plot, and the secret service is brought in for the investigation. Sean Penn, who plays the secret service man Tobin Keller, therefore begins his interaction with Silvia.

There’s a big political plot in the film, which is mainly about genocide in a fictitious African country, whose president is the target of the assassination. And Silvia is not as black and white as she seems – which Keller jumps upon from the first instant, gradually uncovering her past.

Two elements make this film stand out from your average thriller. The first is Sydney Pollack’s execution. The film features a few scenes where there’s genuine tension, through some standard but excellent nonetheless parallel montage sequences. The second is the two lead characters and their interaction. Keller and Silvia have both suffered a emotional loss, and they naturally form a bond. Indeed, though not much is said (or done) you could feel the chemistry. This emotional aspect, which is a side-story if you view the whole film as a commercial thriller, makes the two characters believable, and makes you care.

The two leads, needless to say, give a good effort. Penn’s character seems reminiscent of Mystic River and 21 Grams, where his character is also under emotional pain. Kidman, whose character needs to maintain a sense of mystery throughout, delivers a generally effective low-key performance.

The only complaint I have, then, is really the ending. After all the careful build up, the tension in the final 10 minutes is lost as the actual assassination attempt begins. The fault mainly lies with the plot, which is a hard sell.

7/10