Product Description

Academy Award winners Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn star in the action-packed thriller, The Interpreter. In one of the hidden corridors of power at United Nations headquarters, translator Silvia Broome (Kidman) overhears a potentially explosive secret about a planned assassination attempt. But when federal agent Tobin Keller (Penn) investigates her claim and digs deeper into Silvia's dangerous past, he begins to question whether she is a victim - or a suspect. From Oscar-winning director Sydney Pollack comes the riveting, edge-of-your-seat story of international intrigue that Ebert & Roeper give "Two thumbs up!"

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9905 in DVD
• Brand: KIDMAN,NICOLE
• Released on: 2005-10-04
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French, Portuguese
• Subtitled in: French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 128 minutes

Amazon.com
Director Sydney Pollack delivers megawatt star power, high gloss, and political passion to The Interpreter, his first thriller since The Firm. With Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn delivering smooth, understated performances, the film more closely recalls Pollack's 1975 Robert Redford/Faye Dunaway paranoid thriller Three Days of the Condor, trading conspiratorial politicians for potential assassination in the United Nations General Assembly (this being the first film ever granted permission to use actual U.N. locations). Kidman plays a U.N. interpreter who inadvertently overhears hints of a plot to kill the reviled, tyrannical leader of her (fictional) African homeland; Penn is the Secret Service agent assigned to protect her, or to determine her role (if any) in the assassination scenario. By distancing itself from real-life politics, The Interpreter softens its potential impact as a thriller about contemporary globalization and threats to international peace, but the Penn/Kidman personal drama (between two people who gain a deep appreciation for shared anguish, without being artificially forced into romance) adds a richly human dimension to Pollack's expert handling of the thriller elements of a complex yet easily-followed plot. Indie-film stalwart Catherine Keener shines in her supporting role as Penn's sarcastic by sympathetic Secret Service partner. --Jeff Shannon

DVD features
An excellent interview with director Sydney Pollack illustrates his intelligent approach of making films. However, the fact the alternate ending was even shot is bewildering. Thank goodness it didn't make the final cut! Pollack makes a passionate plea for keeping the widescreen aspect for home video. Although he enjoys the squarer, full-screen picture, he tells us that panning-and-scanning a widescreen print is disregarding how he shot the film. Oddly enough, Universal released the DVD in both formats. --Doug Thomas

From The New Yorker
The new Sydney Pollack movie is set at the United Nations: not the bear pit of recent wrangling but a barely ruffled pool of international good will. Among its many altruists is Silvia Broome (Nicole Kidman), an interpreter who was raised in Africa. One night, she hears what she believes to be the murmurings of a plot: a plan to kill Edmond Zuwanie (Earl Cameron), the murderous president of Matobo, a fictitious African republic. She has cause to hate him, but does that make her a suspect as well as a witness? On her case is Keller (Sean Penn), a Secret Service agent and purveyor of universal sadness. He starts to investigate Silvia and inches toward the verge of falling in love; if the movie were ten hours long, one could easily picture the two of them throwing caution to the wind and going out for a drink. The plot, meanwhile, follows an unusual course, rising to a tense and wiry scene involving a baddie, a bomb, and a bus, but slumping to a thrill-free finale, whose credibility will explode if you say the words "swipe card" out loud. With Catherine Keener, thank heaven, as a fellow agent, and the only person present to see the joke. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker