This is more of a two-day-in-one post, since I came in too late yesterday (or too early for some) to write anything remotely coherent. Unlike Lady Baya who manages to stay on top of her game at four a.m. in the morning.

I`ve seen better. Oh, first I must tell you what the hell I am talking about. No, not Baya, it`s the movie we went to see yesterday. Every once in a while it`s only fair to support the megalomanic movie industry and to chip in so that they can make crappy movies par excellence.

A movie about an interpreter in the UN tries to be convincing and believable and fails to do that at some points. First off, if you think that it`ll show you the workings of the UN, forget it. There`s only a fragment of that eau d` politics and even that is riddled with stereotypes (I am aware that even stereotypes have a point of origin, but saying things like “C`mon, we both know the french preposition is a headache for the both of us” puts the politics and its workings in a slightly “funny “perspective).

Political intrigue and deception unfold inside the United Nations, where an FBI agent (Penn) is assigned to protect an interpreter (Kidman) who overhears an assassination plot.

What bothered me the most in this movie is that it tried to get a greater point through, but failed. It always happens when on one hand the movies tries to be serious and deep and is trying to explain “everything” and on the other hand tries to be action-packed and fast and interesting. When trying to do that, movies usually fail to do both and either turn into a documentary or a fast-paced action flick with little-to-none real-life details. As the time rolls, The Interpreter leans toward the latter option. Bomb on a bus, vespa chase, breaking and entering to find a dead body scene, the climax… all these scenes are filled with action and do not synch well with the previous long-dialogues scenes. As if it`s mandatory to blow something up in the last hour of the movie.

The movies has a few turns in the plot, but they did not impact me. Maybe because lately all movies twist their plots the same way. Which takes all the fun out of it. Since you are already expecting what they thought you would not expect at all. Although I must commend the authors to exclude all meaningless fuck scenes (they are learning, although seeing Sean Penn make love or even kiss…I don`t know if I am willing to see that.) Still, they always manage to squeeze in some two-bit personal story, which says absolutely nothing about the character but is there more or less just cause they needed to fill in the ten minutes left for the full-length movie.

All in all, the movies is not a complete flop but compared to “Million Dollar Baby” it does not stand a chance. Not talking about the content, but about the way it`s performed. But they are learning. They are.

And on a more personal side… Baya, this is the guy.