Les traducteurs

Terrific contemporary mystery will keep you guessing right up until the very end while entertaining the viewer with great visuals and a superb score. An ensemble cast led by Lambert Wilson gives it their all as the plot twists and turns, mostly set in the underground bunker of a (unseen) Russian billionaire.

As noted in other reviews, if you're a bibliophile then be prepared to add this to your list of favourites.

Overly and unnecessarily complex plot, which seemed to embrace implausible complexity simply for the sake of it. Implausible motivations, and artificial characters that drew no sympathy.

If you love books, foreign languages, and mystery then this is going to be your new favourite! The movie is setup perfectly, and then one plot twist follows the other. The subtitles were a bit distracting but I loved watching such a good film in a language other than English. The plot might look far fetched at times but, it deals with an industry of billions of dollars, and when money is involved, even what the film shows shouldn't seem so unrealistic. Multiple languages are heard throughout the film, but in small edible bites so it is not tiring. I genuinely enjoyed it!

This cerebral and complex film is not the sort of movie you can dip in and out of while you're thinking of something else. The good news is that the essentials of the plot and virtually all the characters are clearly introduced up front. The other news is that it becomes hard work to sort out the teasers, false leads, and almost Aristotelian logic on the way to a wonderfully constructed conclusion. I appreciate films that manage to tie up every loose end, and this one sure did.

Apart from giving great credit to the work translators must endure, the writers managed an intricate, multi-lingual wordplay at one point that -- to me anyway -- was the highlight of the film. So why only seven stars? Because honestly this film was hard for me to follow, but I can easily understand why others might rate it higher.

I almost feel sorry for this movie. I think it had such a great potential and could even be better as a mini-series. The plot is good, but I didn't like the storytelling, how they chose to unfold the story. The setting is good, the characters are interesting, and the first part of the movie was logical and near perfect. But starting somewhere in the middle the movie started to fall apart. All of a sudden, without any warning, they tell you who is the hacker. So the final twist becomes not so much a twist because there were clues dropped earlier, and now it has become obvious. I think the writers could have worked a little harder to tell the story in a more captivating way. For example, there could be more flashbacks to the characters' lives, or events in the past that led to the situation.

Nevertheless, I quite enjoyed the movie. Lambert Wilson is wonderful, as always, and a joy to watch and listen to in both French and English. Other actors are fine with me, too - except, perhaps, Sara Giraudeau who is frankly very unconvincing in her small role as the PA to a boss from hell. The soundtrack is also great, very suspenseful and spot on.