I EXPECTED great things from this tense action thriller but considering director Sydney Pollack's investment of money, time and talent, it was a disappointment.

The plot is centred around the United Nations, where Silvia Broome (Nicole Kidman) works as an interpreter who overhears a plot to assassinate a controversial world leader during a future UN speech.

Coincidentally, this is the same corrupt figure under whose brutal regime Broome's parents and sister meet their death in Matobo, Africa.

With this fuel to her fire Broome has more than a few personal and political reasons for seeing speaker President Zuwanie "gone."

Sean Penn plays the broken, jaded Tobin Keller, who does not believe Silvia's story and makes this known from the outset.

As Keller's investigation continues and the dignitary's visit looms the threats against Silvia's life increase.

There are touching scenes which more than hint at the growing relationship between investigator and interpreter.

But The Interpreter's plot requires intense and undivided attention and is so unnecessarily complex it would make Einstein's Theory of Relativity read like Enid Blyton.

Worth watching, but don't let your attention flit for a second.

CS