Silvia Broome (Nicole Kidman) escaped a life of murder and corruption in Matobo, a fiction African country. She moved to the US where she became a UN interpreter. Fluent in Ku, English, and several other languages, she is one of the best.
After leaving some of here belongings behind in an interpretation booth, Silvia returns after hours to the UN to retrieve them. It is then, in the booth, that she overhears a plot to assasinate President Edward Zuwanie of Matobo, a man accused of genocide and war crimes, when he speaks to the general assembaly several days latter.
Tobin Keller (Sean Penn) is a US secret service agent. Keller is from a branch of the secret service that protects foreign dignitaries who visit the US. Having just lost his wife in a car accident, a few weeks earlier, Keller is finally rejoining the team.
After going to her bosses with what she heard, Silvia is teamed with Keller, who is to find out if Silvia is lying or if she really is telling the truth. If Keller doesn't believe Silvia, the President might die. IF not, a lot of innocent people will get hurt.
The Interpreter is one of the better thrillers to come out as of late. Nicole Kidman and and Sean Penn star and are good together. No there is no typical romatic kiss or any of that, and the characters don't fall in love. The characters distance themselves from that aspect and focus on the facts at hand - figuring out who the assasin is and stopping him.
The picture is loosely based on real-life African dictator Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, accused of genocide and starvation for election votes (giving food to starving people so they will vote for him in Zimbabwe's so-called "free-elections.") There are paralells galore to Mugabe in the film, though he ins;t mentioned at all, so one may only realise this after viewing the film. We see the brutality and the senseless violence the engulfs the fiction country of Matobo, and yet, it is not unlike the real Zimbabwe. Almost everything that Zuwanie is accused of is what Mugabe is accused of. And that's what is so scary.
The Interpreter was actually filmed at the Unitred Nations, which only adds to the authenticity of the film and lends credibility to the picture itself. The Interpreter rarely drags along but speeds up nicely at the end to deliver a taught, political thriller with non-stop, edge-of-your-seat action.
Plot: 
Visual Effects:
Sound: 
The score to The Interpreter is fairly good if not all that memorable. There are several songs in the film which are quite suitable and fit the plot of the film nicely, though they make little or no impact on the film itself.
Character Development:
There isn't a great deal of depth in the characters when we first meet them, but as we move along in the film we learn little details about out protagonists. We learn more about Silvia, though, than we do about Keller, however each character grows nicely by the end of the film.
Atmosphere:
The film is easy to get into, and not overly hard to follow. It doesn't drag and speeds up nicely by the end.
Realism:
One nice touch of the film - the biggest touch - was that it was actually filmed at the UN, the first film to ever do so. Filming at an actual location used in a film (like the UN here or Fenway Park in Field of Dreams) adds a great deal of authenticity to any film.
It would have been nice if the film could have used a real dictator from a real country as the main villain, but it's understandable why they didn't. There would probably have been leagl troubles galore, and the film wouldn't have been made, and this review wouldn't have been made...
Warren’s Rating:
8.14/10 Is the movie worth your time to watch?
27-04-05
