The Interpreter (Widescreen Edition)
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Movie Reviews of The Interpreter (Widescreen Edition)
Movie Review: Something Missing
Summary: 2 Stars
Just got done watching The Interpreter and I must say, it just lacked something. I really like Nicole Kidman and think she is a good actress. I also like Sean Penn in most of the work he has done and Katherine Keaner. But this movie just wasn't that good. First I found no chemistry between Penn and Kidman which would have been fine if they wouldn't have tried to throw in this stupid connection or love story with them. If it would have just been cop and the person he was protecting/suspecting it wouldn't have been bad that they didn't click together. They for some reason decide that Penn, who has only met this woman a day or two before and thinks that she may be a conspirator and possibly an assassin, for no reason at all is going to bear his soul to this complete stranger about his wife being killed just recently and how much he loved her and wanted her back and that she was coming back (which they show you by having him listen to his answering machine with a message from her saying she was coming back right before she was killed and how much he despised the guy she ran off with). No we are suppose to believe that he would tell somebody he doesn't even know this and show this total vunerable side of himself to a stranger but we are also suppose to believe that even though he is grieving the woman he loved more than anything and that she has just recently been killed that he immediately is falling for a woman that could be a killer. This is just forced, stupid and adds nothing to story but actually adds more time and makes it even more bogged down. If it would have been Kidman being a master manipulator and playing on Penns vunerablilities and using him, fine. But this was just crap that hollywood feels they have to add so they can have some love story that doesn't even need to be there.
The pace of the movie is also slow. There are also so many African politicians, rebels, security, bodyguards and FBI, Secret Service, cops, survielance and UN Officials and interpreters that were unremarkable that I had a hard time remembering who was who. Keaner was also underused and simply a character that could have been really interesting but was basically just somebody that could say, "are you alright?" and "you need to go home" to Penn every other time she spoke.
Its worth watching once but I really wish I would have rented it and not bought it. I wouldn't recommend it. Not one of Penn or Kidmans best efforts but that may be because of the story and direction which was a suprise cause Sydney Pollak (who makes his usual cameo) is usually very good and right on.
Movie Review: Great Start, Interesting Middle, Uneven Ending
Summary: 4 Stars
I started to watch this movie in my Dentist's chair. I barely got through the first half hour by the time he was finished. The opening is really strong -suspense and excitement you could cut with a knife. And then I had to leave! I was hooked and had to see the end so I went out and got a copy and I'm happy I did. The interplay and sexual tension between Penn and Kiddman was done with a masterful hand. The plot, a little farfetched if you looked too closely, had enough twists and turns to keep me focused and engaged. The action - explosions, chase scenes, shoot outs - was well done and not over done (given the current trend where action alone transcends plot and character).
The wrap-up (in my opinion) was not up to the quality and excitement of the opening scenes and I left wishing for an alternate ending. But I loved the fact that this was shot on location (NYC makes a great backdrop) and had a New York look and feel about it.
Overall, the movie was a fun suspense thriller, definitely worth a look. It probably could have been better but, heck, this review could have been written better!
Movie Review: Suspenseful. Unusual. Star-Studded. Intriguing.
Summary: 3 Stars
Interpreter is a suspense thriller about the brutality of African politics, an assassination plot, and an UN interpreter who overhears an incriminating clue. For two suspenseful hours, the investigation is just a half-step behind the forces of darkness in fulfilling their mission. Chasing down every lead, the federal agents may not succeed in protecting the target: President of a small African country torn by internal dissension.
Nicole Kidman does a beautiful job portraying the interpreter. Sean Penn becomes the Secret Service agent assigned to protect the foreign dignitary and investigating the UN interpreter. A good movie which overperforms driven by top star performances.
Movie Review: Unexciting and dishonest advertisement for UN
Summary: 2 Stars
It is interesting that the African crisis that is the subject of the Interpreter must be a fictional dictator in a fictional sub-saharan country. There are so many real African dictators and ethnic wars to choose from, to do so would have underlied the fact that the UN rarely does anything substantial about these situations. Pollack's reverence for the physical UN, clearly in evidence in the DVD extras, may have a lot to do with the story looking like something that passed through a bureaucratic approval process. High on the unintentional hilarity scale is the moment where the headquarters are described as a place "where things get done."
The telling Africa crisis for the UN was not the made-up Matobo but the very real Rwanda genocide in 1994. Anybody familiar with the international effort there won't be easily convinced by "the Interpreter" that anything major gets resolved in that building, by all those diplomats in all of those suits. Will the villain get sent to the Hague for ten years of checkers with Milosevic?
Kidman and Penn, the latter whose mere involvement kind of gives away the theme of the movie, have this interesting lack of chemistry. All of their scenes together feel like a bad first date, which could have really worked for the movie but for the very last scene. Kidman hasn't had any interesting work since "Eyes Wide Shut," where the strained chemistry with her co-star was used brilliantly. The little "I believe in the UN" speeches that Kidman gives are absurd and little insulting. Penn gets very little to work with in telling his background tragedies. The two actors are probably too high-profile to convincingly embody characters whose careers rely at least partially on anonymity.
I won't give away the movie here, but it's notable that the most violent (and well-staged) event in "the Interpreter" resembles recent scenes in Europe and Asia - but not the United States. While such things are possible here, the makers of this film try to prop up the role of the UN by whitewashing some very recent history. In short, watching this movie really shouldn't convince you of the importance of the UN, with its big rooms, clumsy podiums and 1950's era furniture. Go rent "Grizzly Man" instead.
Movie Review: For once, something actually happens at the UN
Summary: 4 Stars
Only liberal Hollywood would cast Sean Penn as - of all things - a Secret Service agent and fulfill his egomaniacal dream of actually standing at the podium of the UN General Assembly. But I'm going to try and rein in my feelings for Sean Penn and the UN here - although it will take a great show of will for me to pull that off. Suffice it to say, I had sworn a solemn oath to never, ever watch a Sean Penn movie - and then Nicole Kidman, one of my personal favorites, goes and makes a movie with the guy. Thus, this was an unusual film for me to sit through - and, as much as I dislike Sean Penn for a myriad of reasons (not just political - the guy did marry Madonna back when I had a teenager's crush on her, after all), he delivers a darn good performance in this movie - he was even better than Nicole. Were it not for the fact that I have an issue with the ending and the matter of a few plot weaknesses along the way, I might have considered giving The Interpreter 5 stars.
It's hard to judge Nicole's performance because I'm not sure if I was supposed to truly like her character. Silvia Broome (and how ironic is it that Nicole plays a witch and a character named Broome in the same year?) is fairly remote, mysterious, and secretive, and I never really warmed up to her. This is the first time I've ever not liked or loved a Nicole Kidman character - I even loved her in To Die For, and she wasn't exactly Miss Sweetness in that one. Here, she plays a UN interpreter who just so happens to overhear a whispered conversation (in a language only she and a handful of other people understand) pointing to an assassination attempt against President Zuwanie of the (nonexistent) African nation of Matoba. After learning the next day that Zuwanie is planning on addressing the General Assembly in a few days, she reports what she has heard. Now a lot of summaries tell you that Tobin Keller (Penn) is assigned to protect Silvia, but this is not accurate (not at first, anyway). Keller's job, as a part of the Secret Service branch overseeing the security of foreign dignitaries, is to protect Zuwanie from the time he enters the US to the time he leaves. He initially thinks Silvia is lying about the purported assassination attempt. It's certainly true that she isn't divulging a heck of a lot of relevant information.
There are a lot of subplots and gradually revealed secrets throughout this film - and the writer and director earn major kudos for making sure all of it makes sense and doesn't cause great confusion. In fact, it's all laid out so well that what might be considered surprises toward the end aren't surprising at all. I wouldn't dream of going into any of the intricate details in my review, though - just know that the story is complex and very well told.
There are some definite Hollywood elements to the story, especially in terms of the ins and outs of the UN. One would hope that UN security is better handled in real life than it is here. Background checks, people. Security sweeps really should involve more than someone walking through a room without actually checking anything. And that safe room - here, it should be called a "well, we might have checked it a week or two ago room." We all know the UN is corrupt, but it can't possibly be this vulnerable to security breaches. And why were there any General Assembly microphones on at all when Silvia went back after hours to retrieve her bag? Of course, all of these things can pretty much be forgiven - this is just a movie, after all. It's amazing to me that the United Nations allowed Sydney Pollack to shoot a number of scenes in actual UN locations, including the General Assembly and Security Council areas. The shooting was done on the weekends, but still - why let a brood of movie crew members traipse all over the place? I wonder if they did background checks on these guys - and whose hands they had to grease to get the OK to film there in the first place.
In closing, I'll just say that The Interpreter surprised me - in a good way. It was a far more intelligent, suspenseful story that I expected, and Sean Penn's presence didn't ruin it at all for me. That's not to say I plan on watching any other Sean Penn movies, though - not unless he costars with Nicole Kidman, Jodie Foster, or Aishwarya Rai.