THE INTERPRETER Directed by Sydney Pollack
Certificate 12A

THIS Nicole Kidman-Sean Penn thriller has the distinction of being the first film set inside the United Nations building – a feat even Alfred Hitchcock couldn’t achieve.
Directed by Sydney Pollack (Sabrina, Tootsie, The Way We Were) and produced in part by UK company Working Title, this is a worthy political thriller which brims full of good intentions but tries to pack in a little too much of that goodness along the way.
Kidman (pictured) plays Silvia Bloom, a self-possessed UN interpreter who is able to speak a variety of unusual African dialects. One night, she accidentally overhears the planning of an assassination attempt against an arriving African dignitary.
When she mentions the threat to the authorities, she becomes suspected of either making the threat up or being part of the plot herself.
Assigned to the case is grieving FBI man Sean Penn, a husband who still calls his home to listen to his dead wife’s voice on the answerphone.
At first assigned to watch her then to protect her, their relationship starts as routine romantic tension which is heightened by duty and grief. Then both of them are sucked into a lethal spiral as it becomes clear more sinister powers are at work.
Smoothly paced and intelligent, The Interpreter may be a little too worthy for its own good, but Kidman and Penn both convey the weight of their character’s personal and public dilemmas with credible difficulty.