It's hard to pinpoint exactly why this is a Penn performance to bemoan. To make things easier, track back to when The Interpreter was released and it all becomes a little clearer. Around the time Penn got suited and booted for director Sydney Pollacks swansong feature, he'd strung together a hat trick of exemplary performance - Mystic River, 21 Grams and The Assassination Of Richard Nixon and was on something of a hot streak. So when viewers were faced with the prospect of a talky Penn-starring thriller, where he plays secret service agent Tobin Keller, a man tasked with protecting Nicole Kidman from a Mugabe-esque dictator, expectations fizzled around around the same time the chemistry did between the films two leads. There are plus points to take from this one, namely an okay shootout, but for the most part Penn underwhelms in a movie that he, lets face it, called one in on.