Admirers of director Sydney Pollack might want to watch his thrillers Absence Of Malice and Three Days Of The Condor rather than watch the convoluted, overwritten (by five writers!) and needlessly ponderous The Interpreter.

But if you watch the film with few expectations, it may hold your attention and provide a few thrills. Rising above the heavy limitations of the script and lack of coherent plot development, Nicole Kidman [Images] and Sean Penn [Images] manage to breathe life into the film. The movie is turning into a medium-range hit abroad, and don't be surprised if it opens at the top and earns $70 million in North America.

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Pollock, who stumbled badly with two Harrison Ford films -- Sabrina and Random Hearts -- a few years ago, is in far better shape here but he could have had a first-rate thriller had he not allowed five writers to pull the screenplay in various directions.

Those who were unhappy with his portrait of Africa in Out Of Africa, though it was quite a hit, could think again that he has an inadequate knowledge of any African region.

Yet, viewers might think that The Interpreter, which embraces the ideals of the United Nations, is a good thing, given the American administration's often contemptuous view of the world organisation.

And then again, others may complain that the film could have done away with its preaching and turned into an old-fashioned, solid political thriller with the right kind of melodrama. Remember Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest?   

Nicole Kidman is cast as Silvia Broome, the interpreter who specialises in the Ku dialect (imaginary) spoken in Matobo (also imaginary), an African region where she was raised. She hears, accidentally, of a plot to assassinate 'The Teacher,' Edmund Zuwanie (Earl Cameron), Matobo's strong-armed ruler.

Zuwanie is on his way to New York to address the UN, and Silvia knows that she too is in danger of being harmed, if not killed.

When a Federal Bueau of Investigation agent Tobin Keller (Sean Penn) gets involved in the investigation, Silvia's life becomes even more complicated as Tobin begins wondering what she is hiding from him and the FBI. 

Soon Tobin and partner Dot Woods (a fairly effective Catherine Keener) set up a surveillance operation and keep a sharp eye on Silvia.

We know by now that her brother is an activist against Zuwanie, and her parents were killed by a land mine presumably set up by the tyrant. And we too start wondering that she may not be the pacifist she appears to be. Could she be telling the truth at all, Tobin wonders continually. Or does she have an agenda of her own?

Tobin and Dot's suspicion gallops when Silvia suddenly disappears and is found a few hours later on a bus in Brooklyn. Soon there are sudden and jolting developments, quite a bit of explosion and a kind of surprise ending.

Part of the movie's tension is generated by the relationship between Tobin and Silvia. Both have lost something close to each other but there is no room for much mourning here as the present dangerous situation requires swift and steady response.

The movie is often silly and explosive at the same time and yet it holds interest mainly because of the actors, a bit of slick editing and the visuals.