The Translators

The Translators perhaps wanted to be The Usual Suspects of the world of literary translation (which in and of itself is more than absurd), but with its overwrought twists, phantasmagorical depiction of the translation profession and its fierce seriousness and futile attempt at profundity, it overshoots far into the realm of WTF. Unfortunately, the film’s general sense of self-importance also makes it impossible to even laugh at it much. (13.06.2021)

France is not slacking this year, but I expected more from The Translators. The film has a pretty interesting story about a bunch of translators from different countries who are locked in an underground bunker and tasked with translating a book the whole world is waiting for. But problems arise when someone starts threatening to publish the pages on the internet and demands a large sum of money for it. This could have been a solid thriller in the vein of Exam, and although it's not entirely badly conceived (the final twist is very cool) and stars some familiar faces, it fails to be engrossing and there's no violence at all, which is a shame because the build-up was there a couple of times. As a throwaway, The Translators is okay, but it comes out average at best in all aspects. Story***, Action>No, Humor>No, Violence*, Entertainment***, Music***, Visuals***, Atmosphere**, Suspense***. 6/10. (03.05.2020)