Very much a '70s-style paranoid thriller, with a mood, tone and cascade of plot twists that are highly reminiscent of his 1975 classic, "Three Days of the Condor."

Thrillers don't get much smarter than The Interpreter.

As beautifully designed, swift and sleek as a classic sports car, throbbing with emotion and intelligence, it's a neat suspense film that's also dramatically and sociologically potent, with two supremely talented stars, Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn, delivering beyond the emotional call of duty.

An elegant adventure of a different kind.

Coolly absorbing without being pulse-quickening.

The Interpreter bristles with the smart, steadily engrossing tension that marked such 1970s goodies as "All the President's Men," "The Parallax View" and Pollack's own "Three Days of the Condor."

Slick, well-acted, and smarter than it has to be.

A swiftly told, smartly acted yarn, and it even has an idea or two on its mind.

Watching these coolly precise, methodical actors spar with each other at the top of their game is half the show.

An intelligent, old-fashioned nail-biter.

A cut above the average politically-based thriller.

What I admire most about the film is the way it enters the terms of this world -- of international politics, security procedures, shifting motives -- and observes the details of all-night stakeouts, shop talk, and interlocking motives and strategies.

A suspense thriller of rare intelligence.

The movie's main strengths are its use of the real United Nations as its prime location and Pollack's ability to stud this movie (as he also did "The Firm") with players who do supporting-character equivalents of star turns.