Interpreter

We went to see the movie The Interpreter last night. Overall, I give it 3 stars out of 5. Nicole Kidman plays a white African working as an interpreter for the U.N. She relates a, I assume, fictional story about tribal justice in Africa. I felt the corollary was to the attitudes toward capital punishment here.

When a killer is found, there is a year waiting period for justice. He is bound and taken out into the middle of a river. Then he is then thrown overboard. The family of the victim has a choice of letting him drown, or swimming out to save him. They can let him drown, and will be in mourning for the rest of their lives, or save him and move on. Hard to imagine. But almost seems like a good idea. Sean Penn's character says he would hold the killer's head under (for his wife who had just recently been killed in an auto accident)

Her quote is:

"Vengeance is the laziest form of grief."