*The Interpreter

Directed by Sydney Pollack
Written by Martin Stellman (story), Brian Ward (story), Charles Randolph (screenplay), Scott Frank (screenplay), Steven Zaillian (screenplay)

I’m just about the least political person I know. I find most of the political discourse happening around me to be varying degrees of memetic recitation (I was about to say “regurgitation”, but these are my friends after all). I know people who refused to see this movie on political grounds. I (initally) refused to see this movie because Sean Penn was in it.

All I know about simultaneous translation is from Audrey Hepburn in Charade. Okay, so it wasn’t the UN, but it still looked hard.

Nicole Kidman plays Sylvia Broome, a French-to-English simultaneous translator (just like Audrey Hepburn!) at the UN. One night, while in the soundbox after hours, she happens to hear what sounds to her very much like the plotting of the assassination of a very unpopular African dictator Zuwanie of the (fictitious) nation of Matobo. The facts that Sylvia herself is Matoboan, has some interesting connections with Zuwanie, and in fact has every reason to want him dead are not lost on the two feds (Sean Penn and Catherine Keener) assigned to protect her. Why wouldn't she just keep her mouth shut, let them kill the bastard? Because she doesn't believe in violence, doesn't believe in revenge - that's why (cue James Newton Howard) she works at the UN. Oh, plus, the conspirators maybe spotted her.

How best to approach The Interpreter? Best not to look for any deep political insight (the major one of which appears to be that The System Works). The film is best approached as part character study, part straightforward procedural, part thriller (and a tight, efficient, economical one it is at that), and...wholly a commercial for UN and the power of diplomacy, of words, to help, to heal, etc. Agree or disagree, it’s a handsome building.

And ah, Sydney Pollack. We know we are in the hands of an experienced director right away – the plot moves quickly, and in a few deft scenes we learn all that we need to know about these characters, before they are let go to inevitability (especially admirable given the number of people who had to substantially rewrite the script after Mr. Pollack decided to completely change the ending). The climactic confrontation between Sylvia and Zuwanie strained plausibility, but was forgiveable given its emotional truth. And the fact that we can speak of emotions in what is basically a police procedural dealing in global diplomacy scores this film a few points in the win column.

[In order to fully appreciate this feat, consider for a moment, say, Attack of the Clones, another police procedural dealing in global diplomacy, which was absolutely devoid of emotion despite its operatic settings and what I suppose we are meant to take as a grand melodramatic romance.]

The casting (more than the acting) is uniformly good . Nicole Kidman, who I usually like anyway, is excellent as the haunted UN interpreter with a past. Certain well-known critics have commented on her casting, loudly wondering how much more interesting and powerful a movie this would be had Dreamworks cast a black actress in the role. I choose to non-cynically believe that Kidman was cast simply because she was the best actress for the role, not for her potential box office draw, and had they cast an Angela Bassett (I hate what they’re doing to you on Alias, by the way) or, gag-of-all-gags, a Halle Barry in the role, these same critics would just as loudly wonder how much more interesting and powerful a movie this would be had they cast a white actress in the role.

Sean Penn, whose unique brand of pompous, humorless, squinched-face whinging somehow continues to win him endless accolades, is also used to great effect as the tired fed with a tragic past. Again, as interesting an idea it would have been to have, say, a John Cusak or a John C. Reilly in the role, this part really did call for a pompous, humorless, squinched-face whinge, and honestly, when I say the words "pompous, humorless, squinched-face whinge", what's the first name you think of? Meanwhile, Catherine Keener, who admittedly plays the world-weary wisenheimer in every movie she’s in, has what turns out to be a pretty good supporting role here.

“Haunted”, “tired”, and “world-weary” were words that kept coming to me as I watched and listened to the characters in this film. Indeed, the New York City portrayed in this film is the City as I know it (though not necessarily like it) best – foggy, drizzly, cold, and very, very grey. So pervasive is the grey that, with its deep colors and rich woods, the UN is (an intentional choice, I’m sure) almost warm and intimate by comparison. The beat, tired, and world-weary characters in this film have witnessed and survived enough to deserve to be as cynical as they are. The attempt of some of these characters to rise above their cynicism, their desire to believe that there is anything more to life than more heartache and death, this is what the movie is really about. The simple fact that Pollack does not loudly and continuously beat us over the head with this idea alone is proof that we are in excellent hands.

If you require more proof, the bus scene alone is worth the price of admission.

A word about the Vespa: Chief UN interpreter Brigitte Andreassier-Pearl, who served as a character model for Nicole Kidman, has famously scoffed that “no one comes to work on a Vespa in New York.” My friend Doug, who has crashed his beloved Vespa on the streets of this fair city more times than most people have even rode on one, got a good laugh out of that one.