I found The Interpreter to be a pretty good thriller, although it's not without a few problems in the execution. I felt the the suspense was a little uneven, but when it was good, it was really well done. The performances by Nicole Kidman (who hasn't looked as cute since Batman Forever) and Sean Penn (in his first wide release since his brilliant Oscar winning turn in Mystic River) were both as good as expected, and the plot was interesting enough.

B

Hmmmm....no bad guys except for the bad guy. Pollack managed to keep everyone, ultimately, clean and innocent. I can;t deride it too much, since clearly this movie was politically motivated with ideals that I am more likely to agree with than not, but you know when the C.I.A. is full of sympathetic "good guys" trying to do the right thing, that something's up.

Good action sequences, damn I was biting my nails for the entire bus ride. That's tension for you.

She also mounted it on Nostrand right where I live. Crown Point baby! \:D/ Uh...ok, maybe not such a good thing. #-o

Have to do the full review now, but it's going to land somewhere around a B-

I'm seeing this tomorrow, I'll post on Sunday since I'll be gone all day on Saturday.

A pretty solid flick. It took its time to get going, but once Penn began his investigation things picked up and built to a magnificent scene involving many of the principle characters. I really liked some of the conversations Penn and Kidman had (the one that took place in "Mexico" and the one where Penn opens up a bit and divulges some personal information), and they were both terrific in their roles, Penn especially (who was WAY better in this than in Mystic River, but whatever =; ). However, I was disappointed to see the forced lovey-dovey scene, even though it didn't go that far. I found the story very interesting and relatively easy to follow until the very end where I got a little confused. The film also could have benefitted from a less sappy ending and the removal of a very cliched cinematic situation.

I'll give The Interpreter a B.

Well I hate to disagree with everyone, but I found the movie to be horrible! I was going in expected a good mystery/action movie and what I got was one of the dullest movies I have seen since...Alexander. Seriously, the pacing was at a snails pace to say the least to go along with the five minutes of suspense the movie contained. Don't get me wrong, the acting was great between Penn and Kidman. But I was so bored and tired by the end (with my girlfriend sleeping on my right and two of my buddies sleeping on my left) I was almost laughing at the "tears" of Penn. Sorry Mav and the others, but for me this is the worst movie I have seen this year.

D

The Interpreter was a solid thriller. Great plot, great performances, great scenes; what else could you ask for? How about a movie that isn't so easy to predict. I was hoping for a thriller that would keep me guessing until the end, and still surprise me. But, no. Into the first twenty minutes of the film, I was able to predict everything that would happen in the end. This was The Interpreter's only flaw. Ironically, it was the only flaw of The Manchurian Candidate as well. But, it was still a good movie. The "bus" scene was literally heart-pounding. There were some tense scenes as well that kept you on the edge of your seat. Kidman's performance was top-notch. Penn's performance was good, but it didn't blow me away. The ending was good, sure, but I do wish I couldn't have guessed it so quickly. A solid film, though. Recommended. B

I quite enjoyed The Interpreter - it is a fairly complex personal story overlaid upon a fairly complex political story. I found the naturalistic settings to enhance the reality quotient considerably. Nicole Kidman is awesome as always - 'nough said. But Sean Penn is clearly becoming America's lowest key overactor - yow! For those that rate on a letter scale, I would say this wasn't quite the A+, but was definitely a solid A.

5 out of 5.

Great line. =D> And I agree.

The Interpreter:
A-

The Interpreter
7.5/10 [or a borderline B/B+]

"An exhillarating thriller with a great performance but gets bogged down in backstory"
"I saw something today" Kidman gasps in the trailer for her latest picture. Inviting audiences to find out what exactly it was she saw. In fact; Kidman didn't see anything; it was more of what she heard that keeps the intrigue and momentum going throughout "The Interpreter" ; a slick but at times over political thriller which sacrifices pace for back-story after a rapid-fire start.

I also think that it could have done with more scenes in the U.N, which was really interesting as a location.

Forget the Oscar.

But I thought that Nicole Kidman was great in this role. She did nothing that was too over the top but most scenes that she played were acted so perfectly, IMO.

*****************

On the movie, I knew where it was going with those 2 bad guys involved but it was interesting getting there mainly because of Kidman and Penn to a lesser degree.

This is the kind of movie I love when it is done right. A superior effort from Pollock with great performances by Kidman and Penn. To think that I never used to like Kidman early in her career. Pollock has succeeded where Demme failed completely last year with The Manchurian Candidate.

The characterization is fine with a lot of attention paid to details makes it touching at times and always credible. One such instance is when Silvia reads the dairy she kept with her brother on all the people killed.

A

I wish Hollywood made more movies like The Interpreter, which is an effective political thriller that takes time setting the plot up and ends in a perfectly engaging fashion. It was nice to see this film not have some "shocking" twist at the end that makes hardly any sense. The performances by Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn, two of today's best actors, are credible and well-played. B+

This looks really good. I'll try to see it next weekend.

THE INTERPRETER - 5/10 (C-)
My god, what a piece of boring shit! I thought the trailer was great and the cast promising but the movie as a whole was just boring. It was really predictible too. The performances were great, Kidman was amazing and she did all she could with saving the movie. Biggest disappointment of 2005 by far.

I'll still see it and hope for the best.

I'm amused by people who think this was bad because it was "boring." I guess it was just so terrible because it didn't feature someone getting shot or a random explosion occurring every 5 minutes.

I didn't think it was boring at all. Far from it. While not what I would consider a masterpiece, it was interesting. I wouldn't have recommended it to my mom and her husband if I didn't think so, and they both enjoyed it when they went last night.

That's not why I thought it was boring, I love dialogue heavy films, DOGVILLE, THE DREAMERS, BEFORE SUNRISE, etc. I just thought the film was boring, as in what they were talking about. I didn't expect an explosion every five minutes because I heard there was almost no action in it.

Yeah and you thought The Amityville Horror was a masterpiece :razz:

I wouldn't call it a masterpiece. I have no clue which AMITYVILLE you're talking about, the original was a good film, while the remake was a good film and a fucking great time but I'd never call it a masterpiece.

I didn't find that much that was unexpected in the movie

but

I really enjoyed the movie just to watch the actors, especially Kidman, act her way through the movie. Even in her non-talking scenes, I thought that she was so interesting and watchable. There was just something about her.

On Penn, mainly he played so close to his standard good job - but everytime the camera was on him - I was trying to figure out why his hair was so high. It was alittle distracting.

Also enjoyed seeing Catherine Keener and Sidney as he usually plays in his movies - like he did in Tootsie.

Good thing then he doesn't have huge breasts. That would have completely thrown you off. :wink: