We're used to actors becoming directors, but Sydney Pollack is the rare case where an established Oscar-winning director became an actor, and a very good one at that as seen in his brief scenes in THE INTERPRETER.
Unfortunately, that movie also shows that Pollack hasn't shot a compelling good film since the 1970s. To be fair, I haven't seen OUT OF AFRICA but only because Meryl Streep getting syphillus doesn't intrigue me enough.
As a director, Pollack is good in stringing up the suspense and tension. The stakes are high, the chases are tout, time is running out, and the heroes are always running. Technically he made a quality picture that should have been a good fun popcorn jumper this side of NORTH BY NORTHWEST or any DePalma thriller.
Too bad the script misinterprets its compelling set-up. Nicole Kidman is a United Nations Interpreter working late one night at the UN when she overhears two men talking secretly. She claims they plotted assassination.
The whole clutch of the movie is, we the audience don't know this fictional language which she is fluid in, and that's what Secret Service agent Sean Penn has to investigate for the next 2 hours. Is she telling the truth or lying between her Crest-whiten teeth?
The problem is that Kidman's character is packed to the gills with emotional baggage of a back-story, we the audience never get much fun in playing this game because we know the answer already. Pollack tries some shenanigans about "forgiveness" to get around this fact, and it just doesn't fool anyone.
A shame because Penn is rather good. Whatever you agree or not with his politics, he can a great actor and I wish he would work more commercial fare. With the character's recent melodrama, he's full of rage, and with Kidman not cooperating, he's about ready to bite her goddamn head off, even if they are having a flirting relationship with ZERO chemistry.
Sometimes good actors just don't sizzle at all together. TORN CURTAIN anyone?
The failed romance in INTERPRETER reminded me of that Al Pacino picture SEA OF LOVE, which was about a cop falling in love with a woman that he suspects to be a serial killer. A nice flick because it worked as both a thriller and in body heat.
But damn, all that is nothing compared to the stupid ending. Would freedom fighters-turned-dictators like Fidel Castro or Pol Pot admit their failing, abdicate, and surrender to the local war crimes tribunal? You won't believe it until you see it.
I really wanted to enjoy THE INTERPRETER, to be excited and I was game for good ole spooks and conspiracies. Instead I found myself very bored.
Decades ago, the United Nations declined Hitchcock's request to film inside for NORTH BY NORTHWEST, but gave the clearance for this movie. Their taste in cinema is as useless as the institution itself.
