Lost in Translation

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This Movie Is Best Understood by Travelers
Won't give you a synopsis; that's been done. However, I've travelled a lot, and those I know who travelled as much as I really love this movie. If you are away from home, whether in another country or another time zone, it's great to find someone to connect with. I'm not talking about finding someone to have sex with, just mere companionship. If you are at a convention, then you have a greater chance of meeting like-minded individuals. But, if you are basically on your own, for a stretch of time, it can become awfully lonely. Maybe that's what is "Lost in Translation." Maybe that's why a lot of folks don't get this movie.

LONELY DAYS, SLEEPLESS NIGHTS
Bill Murray gives perhaps his most understated, and sensitive performance to date in this near-perfect gem of a movie, and Scarlett Johansson showed a poise way beyond her age at the time this pic was made. The chemistry between the two leads is wonderful, and Sofia Coppola's deft direction of her screenplay is equally dynamic. She ( Coppola ) gives a fresh twist to what might have been just another forgettable, May-December romance, and weaves it into a searingly funny, extremely moving, and pretty damn near cliche-free character study. What makes this film work so well is that though these two very different, obviously lonely people, seem entirely meant for one another they manage to avoid doing the expected, and in the process create a much more poignant and compelling statement about love than might have been if the story had ended differently. Still, one can't help wondering what Bob whispered to Charlotte before they parted....

3 stars out of 4
The Bottom Line: Though the movie's attempts at broad comedy (e.g. the "engrish" speaking prostitute) often fall painfully flat, the May-November scenes between Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray work so well that they more than overcome the movie's faults.

Beautiful Feeling of Disconnection
I can't believe so many people gave this a bad review. In my mind, this is the best movie ever made that exemplifies the disconnected, lonely feeling one experiences even among millions of people when undergoing an existential crisis. I still remember the cool feeling I got the first time I watched this. I felt as disconnected and hopelessly drifting as both Bill Murray and Scarlett Johanssen, and Sofia Coppola managed to link this feeling with a sense of the noble beauty of loneliness that lingers after the credits have finished rolling. This movie is stylish, funny, deep, and real, and for all of these reasons, it deserves a top spot on any true filmgoer's list.

Overrated
All men recall a woman from their past that sticks in their mind, not as some drop dead gorgeous goddess nor as some hideous dog that made them want to retch, but simply because they were in some way, however minor, interesting. That interestingness may have been their looks, their quirks, their persona, or some indefinable `otherness'. Well, that's what the film Lost In Translation is- it's not a bad film, nor nearly as good as its reputation proclaims, but it is unlike just about any other Hollywood or indie film to come down the pike in the last few decades. That it was nominated for and won a screenwriting Oscar for director Sofia Coppola is just plain silly since the film's resonance and character creation comes from its visual images, not its too spare writing. An aging, former American film star named Bob Harris (Bill Murray) comes to Tokyo to film an ad for a brand of scotch. Like many American film stars in real life who refuse such stateside, lest oddly believe they'll dampen their credibility as actors, he accepts the enormous sum the Japanese sponsors offer him- $2 million- for a week or so's work. There he meets the Gen Y wife of a hip young photographer named Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson). They have little in common save their shared loneliness and insomnia when Charlotte's husband John (Giovanni Ribisi) goes off for a few days on a shoot. Charlotte is a typically aimless young soul who peripatetically bounces between wanting to write or photograph, & seeking an outlet for her philosophy degree from Yale, while Bob is a lethargic middle aged man who's not so much in crisis mode as he is in ennui to the cosmos.... Still, as stated, the movie's visuals are its real charm- the scenes of Tokyo's night life, neon, the odd angles that Charlotte looks down upon life from in her hotel room, and especially a beautifully filmed, yet hauntingly lonely shot of Bob playing golf in the foreground of Mount Fuji, add almost enough poetic resonance to the characters that the script lacks to pull off a viewer's belief in their romance. Sofia's brother made a far superior film a few years ago that dealt with many of the same themes of alienation. CQ, for whatever reasons, did not seem to strike a chord the way Lost In Translation did. The reason for that is probably because CQ was not as `serious' an art film as Translation.