SLICK SLEIGHT OF HAND

THE INTERPRETER
Directed by Sydney Pollack; screenplay by Charles Randolph, Scott Frank, and Steve Zaillian, based on a story by Martin Stellman and Brian Ward; cinematography by Darius Khondji; music by James Newton Howard; editing by William Steinkamp; production design by Jon Hutman; art direction by W. Steven Graham, Zack Grobler, Tom Warren, and Dan Yarhi; set decoration by Beth A. Rubino; costume design by Sarah Edwards 
With: Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, Jesper Christensen, Yvan Attal, Earl Cameron, George Harris, Hugo Speer, Yusuf Gatewood, Curtiss Cooke, Byron Utley, and Sydney Pollack. Rated PG-13 for violence, some sexual content, and brief strong language. Running time: 128 minutes



Reviewed by Joel Johnson

Two of the best actors (Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman) working today square off in Sydney Pollack’s United Nations–based thriller. Their stellar efforts as well as a mostly effective supporting cast keep the proceedings continually interesting and almost exciting enough to overlook the flaws in the convoluted story. It is, however, a shame that the rock-solid sense of reality that Pollack achieved by being the first filmmaker to actually film at the United Nations building in New York City is undermined by the script.

The script is the product of five writers. Two are credited with developing the story and then three more labored on the screenplay. Are you familiar with the saying about cooks and broth? I think there’s something similar said about writers and scripts. However, whether it is simply a matter of increasing the number of writers that causes a problematic script or if particularly challenging story ideas lead to additional writers, multiple writers—especially those that don’t normally work as a team—should be a warning sign that a film may have problems.
 
We should give the film credit for what it does well, which is quite a bit. The film’s problem is well disguised and not truly perceived until the end. The action keeps moving. The tension repeatedly becomes taut and then relaxes as part of an escalating dynamic. The film makes good use of its New York locations—especially the General Assembly meeting room. The large cast hits their marks and gives us many convincing characters. The film tells a story about international politics that, to invoke hackneyed hype, is “ripped from the headlines.”  The story refers to terrorism, political repression, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, the International Criminal Court, assassination, and the United Nations.
 
The United Nations (UN) could desperately use some good press. This situation may have contributed to its willingness to assist the filmmakers. At best, the UN has had a checkered career since its inception in 1945. Congress became so frustrated by the UN several years ago that they decided to withhold dues the United States owed. And this was well before the UN's notorious Iraqi “Oil-For-Food” program was fully exposed as being rife with corruption. This film doesn't exactly rehabilitate the UN’s image—blue hats (UN peacekeepers wear blue helmets) do not end up riding to the rescue. However, the film does serve to educate—or more likely reeducate—its audience as to the potential the UN has to be a forum where international problems can be discussed and resolved peacefully. The critical role of fostering the thorough and fair exchanges between the leaders of nations that speak different languages is what makes interpreters so important. But this film is not really about what interpreters do. It is about how one interpreter becomes enmeshed in a potential assassination plot.

The assassination target is the leader of Matobo. Matobo is a fictional African country. If you’re trying to get a handle on Matobo’s internal political situation and need a real country to serve as a model, think about Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe, formerly ruled by a white minority as Rhodesia, achieved its independence during the 1980s. The nation has gone through a very difficult period, with high black and white tensions because the one-time elite of white landowners were dispossessed of their lands. More recently, this nation’s longtime leader has been repeatedly charged with corruption and repressing his political opponents. This path from national savior to corrupt despot is the path the film plots for Matobo’s leader Zuwanie (Earl Cameron).

Nicole Kidman’s Silvia Broome has dual American-Matoban citizenship. We learn that she has lost her parents and her sister to the upheaval in Matobo. She says she left Matobo so that she would neither be a victim nor a participant in the violence and came to the United States to work at the UN as an interpreter so she could be a force for peace. However, her own and her family’s past involvement in Matoban politics make her a suspect witness, even though she is the one reporting a definitive threat against Zuwanie, who will be visiting the UN to defend himself against the charges of committing crimes against humanity.

Tobin Keller (Sean Penn) is a Secret Service agent in Foreign Dignitary Protection who will be responsible for maintaining security for Zuwanie. He first needs to establish whether the threat against Zuwanie is credible. The heart of the film is the interplay between Silvia Broome and Tobin Keller, and it begins with Keller’s skeptical assessment of Silvia’s credibility. The fact that this spotlights the two stars much better fits the reality of the movie business rather than the reality of an investigator seeking to protect a political leader whose death squads would seem to have created countless angry enemies and bitter exiles. There is a prolonged dance between the two as they circle each other as mistrustful foes before discovering that each has been damaged by tragedy. Losing family members has deeply scarred Silvia, and Keller has been devastated by the recent death of his wayward wife. This establishes a bond of suffering and allows the two to dally with ideas about forgiveness and grief. However, the central issue is, can Keller trust Silvia? An equivocal polygraph test leads Keller to make a fairly obvious decision. He decides that he would prefer to make a mistake in believing that there is a threat even if there isn’t one rather than to make the bigger mistake of not believing there is a threat and there really is one. Could he have made any other choice? 

Sydney Pollack is very effective in creating tension and successfully executes several set pieces that ratchet up the thriller’s emotional kick. There’s a swirl of events that makes Silvia appear both as a target and a possible accomplice. These are parts of the film that use the large supporting cast, and they do deliver the goods. This helps the film avoid becoming too focused on its leads and opens up the film by acknowledging that it addresses issues that have national and international consequences.

The only weaknesses in the film’s cast are Earl Cameron and Pollack himself. Pollack has played several supporting roles—most notably in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. His urbane sophistication that was so right for that film doesn’t fit the hardheaded Secret Service supervisor role for which he has cast himself. Earl Cameron is terrific as the wily, tough, and self-loathing dictator, except he simply sounds too American. He never is convincing as a native African.

SPOILER WARNING: The major problem with The Interpreter is the challenge of writing a script in which the entire plot is McGuffinesque—to use Hitchcock’s term for a plot-enabling device that is ultimately meaningless. The catalyst for everything that happens afterward is either a hallucination or a very false loose end in the story. We overhear the disembodied voices from inside the General Assembly meeting room—they and Silvia’s emotional reaction to them seem to be quite real—that Silvia later reports as threatening Zuwanie. She less than satisfactorily explains her delay in reporting the voices—we only have her explanation for what was said because no subtitles were used—because she only connected it to Zuwanie after she knew he was coming to the UN. We never learn who the voices are. Violent acts are soon unleashed, but the assassination plot turns out to be a plot to increase Zuwanie’s popularity by having him successfully survive an assassination attempt. I’m sure former President Gerald Ford wishes his brushes with assassins had had that affect on his popularity. Ultimately, the witness gets the best shot at the corrupt leader during the film’s denouement. Even though the action is completely engaging, and the tender relationship that develops between Silvia and Keller is completely believable, members of the audience may get the disquieting feeling of having been sandbagged and flimflammed from start to finish.  

 

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