#david rayfiel

The Morning After (1986). A washed up, alcoholic actress who is prone to blackouts wakes up next to a murdered man. Did she kill him and, if not, is she in danger?

Castle Keep (1969)

"Europe is dying."

You think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth?

I just finished watching The Interpreter and I’m pretty upset. Someone forgot to put thrills in my thriller!

One night, United Nations interpreter Silvia Broome (Nicole Kidman) overhears two people whispering about an assassination. Unfortunately, the people whispering spot her (she doesn’t spot them) and when she goes to the police, they’re reluctant to believe her. She doesn’t know who was talking, who they’re planning on killing and honestly, what are the odds that she, one of maybe twelve people working at the UN that understand the dialect that was being spoken by the conspirators, walked in at the right time, on the right night, after hours and overheard them? Doesn’t help that the more investigator Tobi Keller (Sean Penn) looks into her past, the more her implication in this assassination is probable.

You’re used to thrillers where the main character suddenly gets involved in an overwhelming situation they must escape from by themselves because the authorities are unable to help. Then, bodies pile up and the clues start presenting themselves. Would-be witnesses are killed before they can be interrogated and the main character is brought in by the police to help solve the case. You probably have a couple of assassinations, some stuff gets blown up, throw in a car chase, revelations that this guy who you thought was good is actually evil and a romantic wrap up where the lead lives happily ever after. This film has enough elements of that general storyline for you to kind of see where it’s going, but all of the life and action you'd expect has been drained away. You're never distracted by tension or uncertainty, meaning you have more than enough brainpower to figure out the assassination plot far ahead of the film's characters thanks to a multitude of obvious clues. From there you wait and hope the film will mix it up a bit, add some flavor of the unexpected kind. No. The person that’s being plotted against isn’t interesting. The head FBI agent is one you’ve seen countless times: distrustful, but waiting to open up with a tragic back story too. Silvia is a bit better though you don’t get to know her very much because the movie insists on keeping secret after secret about her past in order to "keep you guessing" and have a “poetic” ending.

The Interpreter lasts a little over two hours, but it’s so bland and devoid of thrills that it feels closer to three. There's some novelty in seeing a thriller based in the UN building and the cast is good. Doesn't make the end results anything but dull. It’s like the innovation stopped with the concept of the very first draft of the synopsis of the film: that an interpreter for the UN gets mixed up in a possible assassination attempt. To be honest, I found the included 5-minute special feature on why Director Sydney Pollack wants you to watch his movie in widescreen rather than fullscreen more interesting. I doubt anyone who sees The Interpreter will remember it after a week. (On DVD, October 15, 2014)

Earlier today, ATX Television Festival announced the first wave of panels and programming for year seven of the festival. One of the main panels for season seven will feature a conversation between Blown Deadline producing partners David Simon and Nina K. Noble, celebrating 20 years of groundbreaking HBO series together, including The Wire, The Deuce, Treme, Generation Kill, Show Me a Hero, and…