‘The book of love’: When the translation surpasses the original

More thought for its airing on platforms -in the UK it was seen on Sky and in the US on Amazon Prime Video-, ‘The Book of Love’ hits Spanish theaters, a classic romantic comedy which could very well be part of that large catalog of German TV productions adapting novels by Rosamunde Pilcher or Inga Lindström and reclaiming the power of romantic comedies in the audiovisual industry.

Co-production between the US, UK and Mexico (hence its origin as a streaming product for some of its home countries, although it had a big screen premiere in Mexico), ‘The Book of Love’ has one of the most important virtues when it comes to romantic comedies – it is honest. There is nothing more essential than giving what is ostensibly offered and this is achieved by ‘The Book of Love’, the third feature film by Mexican analeine Cal y Mayor, who co-signed the screenplay with David Quantick.

And here’s where It’s time to go back to the comparison with German telefilms that adapt the aforementioned works by Pilcher and Lindström. ‘The book of love’ has the same structure and respects all the characteristic elements of these productions. The plot is simple, Henry Copper, a British author has just published a romantic novel. Traditional in nature, he has created a restrained love story in which sexual passion is sublimated. The result? The book fails to capture the audience and is a failure… except for its Spanish translation.

His publisher tells him that the translated version for Mexico has been a bestseller. Given this event, the author travels to the Aztec country and meets the translator of his novel, María, who is in charge of accompanying him on her journey. In presentations where Henry discovers that the translator has taken too many licenses to translate his book into Spanish, introducing various sexual and passionate elements.turning her novel into a real erotic story.

Honest in its intentions romantic comedy

The film plays with the typical elements of fan-fic, as if the translator, played by Verónica Echegui, had previous experience on Wattpad. With that wink, both the style and shape are very similar to TV movies. What’s more, if it was titled ‘Love in the Fjords: Journey to Mexico’ it would have been fine. Indeed, its visual style is closer to small screen productions, with scenes that could have been part of a Turkish soap opera.

That doesn’t stop the story from being fascinating. Help create Sam Claflin -which, finally, has a leading role that ends with a tragic ending- and Veronica Echegui -wasting charisma- they come into play, and their chemistry, while not quite effective, is quite effective for the story to go on. Special mention for Fernando Becerril, in the role of the grandfather of María’s son. As well as the work of Horacio García Rojas as the villain.

‘The Book of Love’ is a beautiful romantic comedy, which knows how to use its ingredients for a light proposal with fascinating film aspirations. Of course, no one expects a production like “Journey to Paradise”, “Marry Me” or “The Lost City”, in which Julia Roberts, Jennifer López and Sandra Bullock have demonstrated how to defend a romantic comedy with a pedigree. Although she doesn’t reach those levels, Verónica Echegui proves she has wood for the genre.

Note: 5

The best: The moment Sam Claflin’s character discovers free translation.

Worse: Its visual quality is too close to that of the TV series and the chemistry of Claflin and Echegui does not fly sparks.