Review of Interpreter, The

Introduction

With the recent Live 8 concerts and the subsequent G8 summit focussing the world`s attention on Africa in recent days and weeks, releasing The Interpreter with its UN setting and African geopolitical storyline must have seemed like perfect timing. Unfortunately, even more recent events have overshadowed the aims of the G8, and by sheer bad luck colour this film in a different light. One scene in particular may be distressing to watch so soon after the London terrorist outrages. Were The Interpreter on television schedules it would most certainly be pre-empted. It has also resulted in the case artwork being changed at the last minute.

Silvia Broome is an interpreter at the United Nations, whose speciality is the Matoba language and its Ku dialect as spoken in the African nation of Matobo. One night, she overhears someone plotting the assassination of President Zuwanie of Matobo, who is scheduled to address the General Assembly in a few weeks. The Secret Service are called to investigate her claims, and when it appears that she has becomes a target of the plotters, provide protection as well. However, Agent Tobin Keller who is in charge of the investigation finds her story hard to believe, and when he begins to investigate Silvia`s background, finds her motivations to be suspect.

Video

The Interpreter is presented in a 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer. As you would expect from a film barely six months old, the image is pretty much impeccable. The picture is sharp and colourful, with good contrast throughout, rendering the darker scenes in strong detail. Sydney Pollack`s direction makes full use of the Manhattan cityscapes, with the seasonal setting strongly effective in giving the film an unsettling tone.

There are one or two negative points. The UN building is an absolutely stunning setting, and it was a major coup for The Interpreter to get permission to film there. However for certain reasons, areas of the UN can`t be filmed. It`s wholly obvious in the extras, with areas of the background blurred or pixellated. These areas can`t be shown in the film either, and while the work done in obscuring them is much better, you can still see that part of the image is `odd`. Also back-story was established for the characters through use of photographs. However these look shoddily done, and I wound up wondering why the investigators are falling for `fake` photographs.

Audio

As befitting a film called The Interpreter, you get a multi-lingual disc with DD 5.1 English, Spanish and Russian soundtracks. Subtitles are provided in these languages, as well as Portuguese. The dialogue is clear, and the surrounds are put to full use to convey the music and the moments of action. I especially enjoyed the introduction to the UN, we hear the voices of all the interpreters at work, and it feels as if being enveloped in a veritable Tower of Babel. Hollywood is being pretty PC nowadays, and tries not to offend anyone except the North Koreans, hence Matobo is an imaginary country, and Matoba is a language created especially for the film.

Features

Let us begin with a mention of that stupid piracy warning that plays when you insert the disc, that you can`t skip or stop and completely locks up your player for 45 seconds of ill made, poorly directed and horrifically scored `public service announcement`. A brief message to film studios, if someone had just shelled out 20 pounds for your latest opus, they`re obviously not going to buy pirated material are they? So why target them with an anti-piracy warning?

The Interpreter comes with nicely animated menus, a few brief featurettes and an audio commentary from Sydney Pollack. It`s a dry commentary from a technical perspective, and focuses on the making of. It`s a little gappy at times but other than that, fairly run of the mill.

You get an alternative ending lasting 3 minutes and it`s easy to see why it was cut, as it throws the suspension of disbelief firmly out of the window. Add to this some 3 minutes of deleted scenes which were no doubt removed as they gave too much of the plot away early in the film. Both deleted and alternative scenes had `Property Of Universal` emblazoned above the image on my review disc.

Sydney Pollack At Work lasts 10 minutes as the director talks about his career and making The Interpreter in particular. He also takes 5 minutes out to explain the difference between Pan & Scan and Widescreen, and why the Interpreter is his first 2.35:1 movie in 20 years.

The Ultimate Movie Set is an 8-minute look at the UN buildings and how they were used in the film, as well as how hard it was to get permission to film there. A Day In The Life Of The Real Interpreters takes 8 minutes to look at just that, explaining on the way the difference between interpretation and translation, with interviews with the people who work at the UN in that capacity.

Finally there are trailers for the forthcoming cinema release of Pride and Prejudice, and The Bourne Identity SE DVD.

There are subtitles for all the extras including the commentary.

Conclusion

The Interpreter certainly has a rich palette to work with. The setting in the UN gives the film a sense of grandeur, and the politics of the story give it a depth that eludes many a thriller. Matobo is a catchall for the problems of the entire African continent. Its leader clings to power tenaciously despite his age. His treatment of his opponents amounts to ethnic cleansing, his soldiers are children armed with AK47s, and corruption is rife. Just to touch all the bases, one of the characters has HIV/AIDS and then there is the spectre of terrorism that I found a tad unsettling through unfortunate timing. If you want a source that lists all of Africa`s problems in a nutshell, then The Interpreter will get you quickly up to speed.

Unfortunately beneath all that glitz and razzmatazz, there lies a pretty run of the mill thriller that adds little to the genre, and is a smidgen too fond of cliché to rise above the competition. That cliché strikes early on with our introduction to the hero of the piece, Agent Keller. We meet the Secret Service agent in a bar, staring at the bottom of a whisky glass, looking forlornly at his wedding ring. It seems every such hero in a film will have some sort of domestic difficulty to get over. When Silvia earnestly explains what she heard, her testimony is distrusted at first. Of course it eventually becomes apparent that she has a past that gives her ample motive to act against Zuwanie, but our hero manages to intuit this long before with just a couple of questions without waiting for the background check. Still Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman do have chemistry together, and their performances transcend the writing. Also the politics and factions that make up the fictional nation of Matobo make for interesting viewing, and the exploration of reconciliation and forgiveness opposed to retribution and violence gives the story much needed depth.

The movie does provide thrills and excitement in good measure, with performances from the leads almost enough to make up for a script that sags in places. Whether the `Easy Guide To African Politics` aspect of the film is well judged or not is something I`m ill informed to comment on. As a background to the story it did provide added strength. Ultimately though, the film was let down by a rather trite and predictable ending.

The Interpreter is an entertaining thriller that doesn`t quite live up to its grand promise. Its UN setting is a definite positive, something that comes across well on a superbly presented disc. The picture and the sound are top notch, and there is a reasonable selection of extras to accompany the film. I couldn`t shake the nagging feeling that I had seen it all before though.