Wednesday, May 27, 2009

A nineties thriller from 2005


'The Interpreter' (2005) feels like it was made in the nineties.

- This is partly due to the way the opening credits come on while the first scene is playing. This seems like a pretty nineties thing to me. Films don't bother so much with opening credits these days.

- The music doesn't sound like it's of this decade. It reminded me of films like 'The Fugitive' and 'The Firm' (another very nineties Sydney Pollack film. At least that one was actually made in the nineties).

- The two main actors, Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn were big in the nineties (not to say that they aren't big now) which makes this film stand out a bit because there are no up and coming, flavour of the month young actors in it. It could have been released in the nineties.

- There's something about the camera work, and the production (I can't quite put my finger on it) that makes this film seem dated. I think it's just the way that Sydney Pollack directs (I know he's dead but I'll still use the present tense); he doesn't seem to put many artistic flourishes into his work, he favours a more workman like approach to film-making.

- The thriller is very nineties. Especially the vaguely political thriller. They are still made today of course, but they were especially popular in the nineties. Think of all those nineties Harrison Ford films, for example.

I'm not saying that any of this is a bad thing. It was kind of refreshing to see an old school thriller.

1 comment:

The Librarian said...

Luke and I didn't really like this one, as ninties thrillers go, it didn't have enough pathos.

We were also really distracted by Nicole, every time she turned sideways we were like - "where did Nicole go?". The rest of the time we heckled her with comments such as "go eat a hamburger!".

Her acting wasn't very believable either.

Luke hated that the language she was supposed to be interpreting was made up... So no fingers pointed at any particular country...