Director Sydney Pollack has meticulously put together a potboiler with a fistful of savory ingredients -- star turns by Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn, a story of international intrigue with unexpected twists and nerve-teasing tension, the first-ever use by a motion picture of the United Nations building as a location and a meditation on a postmodern world bedeviled by regional tyrants and global terrorism. A number of writers worked on the script, including two award winners, and you can imagine that their preoccupation was to make certain the human element didn't get lost in those mechanics. In one credibility-challenging coincidence -- that happens early enough so an audience will buy it -- she overhears an assassination threat against the dictator of the fictional African state of Matobo, spoken in a rare language she can understand.

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