Traces of real-life politics drive ‘Interpreter’

In theaters

THE INTERPRETER, directed by Sydney Pollack, written by Charles Randolph, Scott Frank and Steven Zaillian, 123 minutes, rated PG-13.

The tense, satisfying new thriller “The Interpreter” stars Nicole Kidman as Silvia Broome, an interpreter for the United Nations who overhears an alleged plot to kill Edmond Zuwanie (Earl Cameron), president of Matobo, the African nation in which Broome was born.

Since Matobo doesn’t exist in real life – and since the movie was directed by Sydney Pollack, whose films sometimes have a political bent that echo real life – you naturally look around to see what might have influenced it.

You don’t have to look far. Pollack makes it clear that Matobo is meant to be Zimbabwe and that Zuwanie is modeled after that country’s president, Robert Mugabe, who fought to win independence from Britain in 1980 and thus became, to many Africans, a great liberator.

Twenty-five years later, Mugabe has lost his appeal. He has become a tyrant, rigging polls, starving his people and using coercion to remain in power.

It has worked. In spite of ruining his country’s economy, he won just this month a controversial landslide bid for re-election.

In a way, Mugabe’s story is the backbone for “The Interpreter,” which uses similar events and characters to build its own story, with flashes of Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” helping to round out the corners.

It follows Silvia in the difficult days that follow her hearing about the alleged assassination, which is set to take place at the United Nations when Zuwanie arrives later that week to deliver a speech to the General Assembly.

Though she tells the authorities the day after she hears, nobody believes her, particularly Tobin Keller (Sean Penn), a Secret Service agent who recently lost his wife and whose gut says that Silvia is lying.

Along with his partner, Woods (Catherine Keener), Keller starts to investigate Silvia, which allows Pollack his second nod to Hitchcock in scenes that recall “Rear Window.” Keller and company set up shop in the building across from Silvia. There, through large windows, they watch her every move with binoculars. (Pollack’s interest in Hitchcock isn’t surprising. In 1960, he appeared in an episode of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” In 1962, he directed two episodes of “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.”)

Without giving too much away, what Keller learns from his investigation is that Silvia has a secret past and ties to Matobo that go deeper than she suggested. There are good reasons to infer that she might want Zuwanie dead herself. But if that’s the case, then why would she have come to them warning about the assassination? Confused, Keller turns to what he does know – there is indeed a plot to assassinate Zuwanie, with some signs suggesting that even that might not be what it seems.

What builds from this is complex and compelling, with Kidman and Penn, both strong here, enjoying the sort of smart, brisk dialogue that reinforces their already undeniable chemistry. This is the first film to be shot inside the United Nations, access that informs the movie with realism.

Only occasionally does the script let the film down, particularly at the end, which is so forced and awkward, it’s essentially a donkey stuck at the end of an attractive cart.

Still, that’s a quibble. “The Interpreter” wedges itself into a turbulent corner of the world and finds there a story worth telling.

Grade: B+

On video and DVD

BIRTH, directed by Jonathan Glazer, written by Glazer, Jean-Claude Carriere and Milo Addica, 100 minutes, rated R.

The provocative, controversial mystery “Birth” stars Nicole Kidman as Anna, a woman who falls in love with 10-year-old Sean (Cameron Bright), a precocious boy who claims he is her deceased husband, also named Sean.

That causes its share of problems. In spite of the passing of a decade since her husband’s death and the fact that Anna is on the verge of starting a new life with her fianc?, Joseph (Danny Huston), she still is vulnerable, still in love with her dead husband, still not quite ready to marry, but urged to do so by her family, which believes she needs to get over Sean and move on with her life.

What they can’t comprehend is the depth of Anna’s grief. And so, when this young Sean turns up at the family’s Upper East Side apartment with the quiet insistence that he is her Sean, the air is sucked out of the room. Calmly, he reveals information only he and Anna could know.

Could this Sean be that Sean? Stranger things have happened in New York.

As directed with great skill by Jonathan Glazer (“Sexy Beast”), “Birth” is a creepy, well-acted examination of how grief can manifest as irrationality. It pushes its share of buttons – and then pushes a few more – in how close Anna comes to feel to young Sean. Still, if you are to believe what she believes, and that a sort of madness has crept into her soul, the well-publicized scenes that feature Anna bathing with Sean, and then kissing him romantically, are inevitable extensions of that madness.

They’re not exploitative. They fit the movie, and as such, the movie works.

Grade: B+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.