Do you watch, hear, or listen?

Just got home from watching "The Interpreter", the first movie Bonnie and I have gone to see, just us, in three years. No offense, but a movie without a cartoon character, Pixar, or Hillary Duff was a welcomed diversion!

The movie, the face value of what I expected, was well done. The intrigue, the suspense, the whodunit, etc.

What I did not expect, and what moved me the most, was the depth of emotion in the characters played by Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn. What reality of depth. Two people, who are kind of kindred spirits if you will, begin on "opposite sides of the river".

Sylvia, pouring herself into her role at the UN, trying to make a difference after losing family members in her native land (now under siege by the very dictator coming to speak to the UN who is the target of the terror plot she overheard), watching her gradually shift and briefly return to her brazen, reactionary side that held guard for a short time in Africa, long enough to bring out some incriminating photos that didn't help her case when Tobin (Penn) absolutely didn't believe her.

Then Tobin....tough guy, to a point. He lost his wife in a car accident a couple of weeks before, he admits to her one night before leaving her apartment after she had given up more information. The poignant moments:

--early in the film, he's at the bar; he unplugs the jukebox to restart it so he can play his song, while getting on the phone to call his home, just to hear his wife on the answering machine.

--getting home, and listening to the last phone message she left.

--in the final scene, finally announcing her name in the same way Sylvia read from her brother's journal of all the victims he witnessed dying back in Africa.

You want a combination of intrigue, suspense, and surprisingly deep emotion?

Then don't miss it. I cried. I never expected this movie to make me cry. You live it, you feel it.

I want the DVD (and I normally don't buy any). Four stars. Go see it. Especially next week when the line is really short because all the Jedi are in line to see that other film....