4 movies about translation

Language is the glue that helps us connect and belong in a community.

Yet with over 7,151 known living languages around the world it can be a challenge to communicate. Let’s have a look at some movies about translation and the importance of being understood.

Rated M - Amazon Prime (Rent or Buy)

It wouldn’t be possible to do a review of translation-themed movies without Lost in Translation. Directed by Sophia Coppola, this film explores the nature of human relationships through two holidaying Americans who meet in a Tokyo bar. They’re both out of their comfort zone for various reasons and to varying degrees.

Bob (Bill Murray) is a movie star whose life path has brought him to a lowish ebb and he’s in Japan to make a Suntory Whiskey commercial. Considerably younger Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is a recent graduate who’s there with her boyfriend.

In many ways they couldn’t be more different and may not even have spoken to each other ‘state-side’. But here they are in Japan, not able to speak the language and holed up in a bar where they met and are relieved to connect with someone they can relate to (and understand).

Set in Tokyo, the film explores themes of belonging as contrasted by their experiences in a culture and a city that’s unfamiliar.

Although they’re very different people, at different life stages they connect at a very fundamental level: who are they really and where do they belong?

By sharing some of their life stories and some adventures during their stay they bond and support each other through. The soundtrack parallels and amplifies the development of the story. Sometimes it’s intentionally jarring and in closing almost cloying smooth and mellow, but it works. We’re invited to step into the lives of these two dislocated souls while they find their way back to their own world and themselves.

Rated M - Amazon Prime (Rent or Buy)

Science fiction and translation don’t often spring to mind. But in this intriguing Sci Fi movie by Denis Villeneuve (the director of Blade Runner 2049), a translator takes centre stage (Amy Adams). In fact, it seems she holds the future of humanity in her hands when aliens visit Earth.

What do they want? Can we assume their arrival is bad news for us humans? Is the world sufficiently united to face the potential threat? These are all questions explored in this refreshingly subtle non-Independence Day-style exploration of extra-terrestrial visitation.

The power of language and the high risks of misunderstandings are brought home when the fate of humanity rests on cracking the linguistic code to communicate with the aliens. Translating an alien language before the world falls to pieces? No pressure…

The film is noteworthy for its premise as well as for its cinematic integrity. It doesn’t rely on flashy special effects and gut-rumbling soundtracks. It uses a more subtle, nuanced approach that’s somehow much more powerful as a result and leaves you thinking about a lot of things long after it ends.

Rated PG – available on Netflix and Amazon Prime (Rent or Buy)

If you’re a foreigner who can’t speak the local language, it can be very confusing and frightening to be detained by airport officials in another country. That’s what happens to Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) who arrives in the US from the made-up, East European country of Krakozia.

Directed by Steven Spielberg, The Terminal is a “comedy-drama” inspired by a book co-authored by Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian political refugee who lived in Charles de Gaulle Airport from 1988 to 2006, in real life.

In the movie, Viktor arrives just as there’s a coup in his home country. That means all his documentation is no longer valid and he’s effectively stranded in the airport as he’s not allowed to set foot outside it. He has very little English. He’s affable and harmless but he’s also an anomaly. While officials work out what to do with him (led by Stanley Tucci as Frank Dixon) he begins to develop a life within the walls of the airport precinct.

Victor’s position in the airport slowly develops from being a problematic foreigner and administrative nightmare to a valued member of the airport community. And although he’s the outsider, he manages to bring the airport workers together. They’re no longer strangers doing jobs indifferently. Victor manages to make the place hum with a sense of belonging (ironic right?). There’s also some romantic interest thrown in with Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta-Jones).

The Terminal could have easily made Victor the focal point of the comedy, the stooge. Instead, he becomes the catalyst to create wry observations on life in general and how people relate to each other despite language barriers.

Rated PG – Amazon Prime (Rent or Buy)

Now to a movie that seems like just another “rom-com” and yet it’s a whole more. As the title suggests, it’s about the meeting of two cultures – English-speaking America and the Spanish-speaking world – in this case, Mexican.

John Clasky (Adam Sandler) is a celebrity chef with a very anxious wife Deborah (Tea Leoni). He’s busy balancing the demands of his work and keeping the family unit together.  She’s between jobs and trying to navigate her role in the home and her place in the world.

When a housekeeper is hired - Flor Moreno (Paz Vega) - things start to get interesting. Flor and John can’t fully communicate at first (until her English improves) yet there’s an undeniable bond that forms between them that transcends language.

The plot unfolds through the eyes of Flor’s daughter, Cristina (Shelbie Bruce) as she narrates the story of her mother’s early years in America via a college admission essay. 

Along the way there are plenty of amusing misunderstandings, translation tropes and even subtitles. These reveals a clash of cultures between comfortable, wealthy, predominantly white mainstream America and Latin American immigrants. Interesting.

Directed by James Brooks, who seems to have been on the levers of popular culture since the 1960s with classic TV shows likeThe Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Simpsons and films Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News and As good as it Gets.

A bonus is the supporting cast. Deborah evolves from being a brittle caricature of an uptight privileged mom to a complex, vulnerable individual who’s undergoing a mammoth internal struggle. Her mother Evelyn Wright (Cloris Leachman) is a no-nonsense and wryly comic character who ultimately grounds Deborah with love and home truths.

Spanglish entertains with surprising substance. Worth a watch.

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