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.

This is what this very entertaining movie was for me: an allegory of the failed European Union. The young British writer and his old French mentor represent the European ideals, the editor represents a bureaucrat from Brussels who has forgotten why he's in the business he's in and is currently only preoccupied by money and control, and the translators represent their countries. It's a very interesting point of view, as it's rare to see this interpretation: two countries who either never were a part of the system or already left (Russia and UK) are the ones who have these values and ideals closest to their hearts. The Italian guy changes sides whenever it suits him, the Greek is old, tired and trying to survive, but not afraid to die, poor Danish woman doesn't feel accomplished and commits a suicide, the German girl is very capable and dedicated to reaching the goal, the Spaniard who at one point seems about to crash finally plots how to win the game by using his language as a tool, the Russian girl translates from Spanish to Mandarin, so that China is informed. They all rebel against the evil editor who has them locked down in a bunker. In a way it's a feel-good, optimistic movie about human nature and how human ideals will always win in the end.

...this is the worst film I've seen all year. For a thriller, the story is ridiculously predictable, even though the setup is quite promising: a group of translators locked in a sumptuous basement to translate the final part of a bestselling series of novels in order to prevent a leak. However, the publisher is blackmailed by someone who must be part of that group, and tries to find out who the culprit is. He does so in highly unintelligent ways, however, so the premise - which takes far too long to build - is almost immediately undone. The solution to the whodunit is painfully easy to guess, just finish the following sentence: If the novel a group of translators cut off from the outside world work on is leaked, then the source of the leak must be... not that hard, is it? Yet somehow this gets glowing reviews on this site. It's also not so much of a mystery to figure out why, writers are far cheaper to hire as the plot suggests. And that's just one of a staggering amount of inconsistencies and continuity errors. Dumb films are mostly fine, one watches them because they're entertaining. However, if a film presumes itself to be intelligent and isn't, and rather insults than stimulates the mind, it deserves the distinction of worst film of the year in my book.