It’s a bright looking setting for such a dark time in history in Munich: The Edge of war - Everything looks colourful and stylish.
Nevertheless Schwochow keeps the tension up right from the beginning. It’s a classic case of the audience knowing more than the characters. Helping with the tension is keeping the Germans speaking German.
The film has an impending doom about it. It's Titanic meets a world war with lots of people being wrong in their assurances of the future. This is fine, they're saying. The tension between the two leads Legat and von Hartmann reflects the tensions between the countries yet somehow in reverse. They are trying to reconcile while their countries irrevocably turn to war. The script is good enough not just to make these two characters overly simple.
McKay finds himself again being a messenger right back in the wars (after after he starred in 1917) with the world being on the verge of WWII. He just must be made of the right stuff - or at least the running stuff. Irons thrives as the miscalculating Chamberlain PM, while the film shows him to be harshly treated by history. Everyone seems anxious as if there was a war on or something.
The theme of personal need versus national duty comes up as well as the sacrifices required come in opposite directions when some are sacrificing for the country and others are against it. The film serves as inspiration and a warning for future skirmishes.
Viewers can be glad the filmmakers resisted the temptation of calling this Hitler’s Translator. It’s an effective international thriller since the audience know the ending and its accompanying tragedy.