- French filmmaker Régis Roinsard’s film manages to intrigue and entertain, despite perhaps one twist too many in the third act
- The mystery here isn’t who’s the killer – it’s which of the nine translators locked in a mansion leaked the first 10 pages of a highly anticipated novel
3.5/5 stars
Translation is often considered a mundane and tedious job, so a whodunit thriller revolving around a group of professional translators at work sounds about as plausible as the plot of a Fast and Furious movie.
But credit to French filmmaker Regis Roinsard (Populaire), because The Translators manages to intrigue and entertain throughout its 100-minute run-time despite perhaps one twist too many in the third act.
The mystery here isn't who's the killer " though people do die in this film " instead it's which of the nine translators locked in a secluded French mansion had leaked the first 10 pages of a highly anticipated French novel, the third and final chapter of a hit trilogy that had taken the world by storm.
Early scenes establish that the leak should have been impossible " the nine translators, each from a different country in Europe, had been hired by a conniving French publisher to translate the manuscript for their local market. The nine have been stripped of their phones and access to the internet, and were constantly under watch during their daily translating work.
Alas, the pages somehow ended up on the internet, costing the publisher potentially hundreds of millions. Refusing to let the translators out of the mansion until the culprit is found, the film takes a claustrophobic turn as the nine begin suspecting one another, with nowhere to go.
Ronsard keeps a tight pace on the increasingly bickering nine, though provides some twists and clues throughout the film via occasional flashbacks. The third act ratchets up the tension as guns are drawn and people are murdered, but ultimately the main mystery remains: who leaked the pages and how?
Just when the audience think they've deduced the culprit, the rug is pulled from underneath with a couple more reveals, which ultimately pushes the suspension of disbelief too far.
Performances from the multinational cast are solid, despite the characters being cliche stereotypes.
Lambert Wilson (Matrix Reloaded) is menacing as the smooth-talking but slimy French publisher; Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace) is the sultry Russian femme fatale with something to hide; the Chinese guy (Frederic Chau) is calculating and pragmatic; and the Italian (Riccardo Scamarcio) is a bit of a hothead and talks with animated gestures.
Still, for a movie about literary translation set mostly inside a mansion, The Translators is tense, thrilling stuff.
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