The Interpreter

Nicole Kidman may not be reporting the death threat, she may not be the threatener in 'The Interpreter'.

Herald rating: ****

Perfect timing for this to turn up on the video shelves. As our cricketers pad up in the one-day series, actor-director Sydney Pollack's thriller is centred around an African leader once hailed as a liberator, now accused of genocide against his own people.

It's the first movie to be shot at the UN, and begins on the other side of the world, with an ambush in a football stadium in the fictional country of Matobo.

Cut to New York, where President Zuwanie (Earl Cameron) of Matobo is coming to defend his policies at the UN General Assembly. Zuwanie was installed as the people's hero but has proved that absolute power corrupts.

An interpreter, Silvia Broome (Nicole Kidman), overhears a death threat against Zuwanie, fortunately uttered in one of the many languages she understands. And in one of those twists that usually happen only in screenwriters' minds, we find that Broome grew up in Matobo, was a Zuwanie supporter until she saw her parents killed, and left the country. She became a UN interpreter five years beforehand.

Two Secret Service agents, Tobin Keller (Sean Penn) and Dot Woods (Catherine Keener), are sent to the UN because, as Jay Pettigrew, the Secret Service head (Pollack), points out, the last thing the US needs is for a foreign leader to be assassinated on American soil. (Pedantic, I know, but the UN isn't actually US soil. A minor point.)

Perhaps Keller and Woods are there to protect Zuwanie. Perhaps they are there to protect Broome. Perhaps they are there to investigate Broome. She may not be reporting the death threat, she may be the threatener.

Zuwanie's white security chief and his opposition are dodgy characters, too.

In this shady world there are many people who would not mind if Zuwanie disappeared as so many of his citizens have. And each has a different motive or combination of motives.

It ain't a bad thriller but with politics, espionage, suspense and a vague scent of romance, there's too much going on for the movie to truly succeed. Both Kidman and Penn seem uncomfortable in their roles as if they, too, are unsure exactly where Pollack is taking them.

The DVD offers an alternate ending that is only slightly skewed from the movie version, three deleted scenes and several features with Pollack backgrounding his on- and off-screen career and his film-making methods.

In The Ultimate Movie Set: The UN, Pollack, Tim Bevan, Darius Khondji and others talk about convincing Kofi Annan to allow them to film at the UN building. The real bureaucrats, chief interpreter Diana Lias and French section head Brigitte Andreassier-Pearl front up to explain their work in A Day in the Life of the Real Interpreters.

On his droll commentary track Pollack recounts anecdotes of filming in Africa and the UN and stars' conversations.

* DVD, video rental out now