Edging closer to Tom (a sort of movie review)

I still didn't get to see Mission Impossible III this weekend just gone. But there was a Tom Cruise connection: I saw "The Interpreter" (with Nicole Kidman) on cable.

I knew that it had received reasonable but not ecstatic reviews, and I must say that I quite enjoyed it, even with the presence of Sean Penn and a script that was, shall we say, trying a little too hard to be earnest in places. But it did have the pleasures of a big Hollywood movie: a big scale (lots of filming inside the UN itself,) some sequences of genuine tension, and Nicole Kidman looking just gorgeous.

It does give the impression of the UN (particularly the General Assembly) being a useful forum, and in that sense it was well and truly dated even before the script was written. (Presumably they had to make the UN look good to get permission to film there.) Also, the interior of the UN looked very fresh and sparkly. I visited there as a tourist in about 1980, and it looked generally run down and in bad need of new carpet and fresh coats of paint. Have they actually spent money on refurbishing it in the the last 25 years? Or is it just good lighting in the movie?

I had also forgotten that, according to Mark Steyn, the script had initially had Islamists as the villains. This was changed to be more of a Rwandan type African crisis at the heart of the politics of the story.

Oh well, it still seemed to serve the plot well enough.

Not a perfect film, but enjoyable enough.