The Interpreter (2005)

Sometimes the words we translate for others end up changing our own lives in ways we never expected. Sydney Pollack's "The Interpreter," his first thriller since "The Firm," brings star power, polish and political passion to the screen. With Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn giving smooth, understated performances, it most closely recalls Pollack's 1975 paranoid thriller "Three Days of the Condor" with Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway, swapping conspiring politicians for a possible assassination at the United Nations. It was the first film ever allowed to shoot inside the real U.N. headquarters. Kidman plays Silvia Broome, a U.N. interpreter who accidentally overhears whispers of a plot to kill the despised dictator of her native Matobo, a fictional African nation. Penn is Tobin Keller, a Secret Service agent assigned to protect her, or to figure out whether she's involved in the scheme herself. By keeping its distance from real-world politics, the film blunts some of its impact as a thriller about globalization and threats to world peace. But the relationship between Kidman and Penn, two grieving people who come to recognize each other's pain without being forced into a phony romance, adds a rich human dimension to Pollack's expert handling of a complex yet easy-to-follow plot. Indie favorite Catherine Keener shines as Keller's wisecracking but sympathetic Secret Service partner. It was the final feature film Pollack directed before his death in 2008.