It all seems so simple at first - African-born translator Silvia Broome (Kidman) inadvertently listens in on a death threat against a bloody tyrant.

But then it gets more complicated. Broome happens to come from the country ruled over by the target. She works for the UN. She is the only one to hear the threat - made in a rare dialect - in a hall-full of microphones. Is she telling the truth?

The poor sap charged with the task of separating fact from fiction is grizzled federal agent Tobin Keller (Penn), a troubled soul coming to terms with his own personal problems.

Broome and Keller are two very different people. She's obsessed with the precise meaning of words and believes in the values of diplomacy.

He's a gung-ho secret service agent who prizes instinct over cold analysis believing actions speak louder than words... no matter how carefully they're delivered.

As you might expect, it's a bit more than a bad-tempered game of Scrabble when the two are forced together in the race to find the would-be assassins before the corrupt dictator addresses the UN General Assembly.

Director Sydney Pollack showed he could craft a decent thriller with the best of them - think Three Days of the Condor or The Firm.

Here he's granted access to the UN building in Manhattan (a privilege even Alfred Hitchcock was denied) and makes full use of the locations to fashion a taut narrative.

Penn effortlessly slips into the role of frustrated fed haunted by his own demons while Kidman has the happy knack of never letting her celebrity overwhelm the parts she plays.

There are a few implausibilities along the way - this is a modern thriller, after all - but the tempo is kept pretty constant with a nod towards the classic The Day of the Jackal.

Particularly impressive is Pollack's handling of the piece-by-piece unravelling of Broome's background only to render her more enigmatic as more facts spill out.

It might get a little predictable after such a such a meticulous build-up but it's never less than entertaining with enough shocks to keep you on your toes.

Interpret that as worth a look.

Tim Evans