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A polished and preposterous thriller, The Interpreter offers two excellent actors a chance to show off, but it's not half as important as it thinks it is. Nicole Kidman stars as an African interpreter at the United Nations who overhears a plot to kill the leader of her country. Sean Penn is the American Secret Service agent assigned to suss out if her story is true. While the pair bicker and bond, the clock is ticking on the assassination attempt...

Neither character is believable, but the stars are absorbing nonetheless, carrying a film that has all the logic-defying plot problems of a dazzling Hitchcock thriller, but little of the zip or wit. Kidman is all wounded glances and glacial beauty. Penn is all mournful eyes and rugged good looks. Neither is as raw or involving as in their best recent work (Dogville and The Assassination Of Richard Nixon respectively), but it's hard to take your eyes off them.

"LOOKS TERRIFIC"

If you start to think, you might ponder why an emotionally fractured agent would be in charge of such a powder-keg situation. Or why Kidman's character isn't taken into protective custody immediately. Or why the US intelligence agencies are so, well, damn stupid. If you're happy to go along for the ride, though, then director Sydney Pollack is an accomplished driver - particularly in the suspenseful (though, silly) bus sequence. Shot at the real UN HQ in New York, the picture looks terrific, too. Just don't expect substance beneath the sheen.