The Interpreter

Film critics have found much to admire about Sydney Pollack's The Interpreter, starring Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn, but their overall reaction is one of reserved dissatisfaction. Mostly the film is criticized for its apparent effort not to offend. A. O. Scott in the New York Times observes that such a movie is conventionally described as a political thriller, but The Interpreter is as apolitical as it is unthrilling. A handsome-looking blue-chip production with a singularly impressive Oscar pedigree, it disdains anything so crude, or so risky to its commercial prospects, as a point of view. Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times reacts similarly. While it would be a mistake to devalue the qualities director Sydney Pollack and stars Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn bring to this complex political thriller, that's not the same as saying it is completely successful, he writes. Wesley Morris in the Boston Globe observes that the movie is supposed to be about the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of black Africans, whose murders [Kidman's character] is forced, alas, to interpret. Kidman becomes the face of genocide, and I'm dismayed to report that atrocity has never looked so lovely. Lou Lumenick in the New York Post takes note of the fact that the script was reworked by five writers (apparently not collaboratively). While superficially intelligent, this Hitchcock-inflected thriller ultimately plays out like a series of half-hearted compromises, he writes. In the end, writes Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post, You're left with admirable, even noble, wreckage, but wreckage it is. Nevertheless, several critics, while finding fault with the film's script, conclude that there's a great deal to appreciate about the film -- particularly its use of the United Nations as a backdrop -- the first time the U.N. has ever permitted itself to be used for such a purpose. The location, writes Robert Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times, adds an unstated level of authenticity to everything that happens. Michael Sragow in the Baltimore Sun adds: The U.N. presence keeps the movie energized. ... The most enticing part of the structure may be how it opens up a city that embodies internationalism organically: Its vast picture windows showcase the miracle of New York. And Peter Howell in the Toronto Star suggests that the U.N. ought to have received star credit along with Kidman and Penn. There is more to moviemaking than just the casting and directing, he comments. Sometimes where you make a film is as important as who you put in it.